Development of friendship network among young scientists in an international Summer School

A total of 49 students, about half of them male, from various countries and 4 student helpers attended the 2008 China Complex Systems Summer School organized by the Santa Fe Institute and the Chinese Academy of Sciences held in Beijing. We studied the development of the social network among these participants during the school, which lasted for 4 weeks, by carrying out surveys at different times of the school. The students got to know each other through various activities, including being roommates, eating together everyday, attending lectures, doing group projects, sight-seeing visits, etc. The topological structures and various properties of the network are discussed. The results indicate how the participants became friends as time went by. By considering the correlations between reciprocal evaluations via the Pearson’s correlation coefficient, it is found that the ethnicity and gender are important factors in establishing personal relationships and in getting mutually consistent perceptions on the relationships. We also study the clique components and community structures in the networks.