He is also the former President of the International Communication Association (ICA) and the current Executive Director of the Web Science Trust.

[2] Contractor completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in communication at the University of Southern California in 1987.

[7] He is known for the Multi-Theoretical Multi-Level (MTML) Framework with Peter Monge described in detail in Theories of Communication Networks.

He is investigating how social and knowledge networks form – and perform – in contexts including business, scientific communities, healthcare and space travel.

His research has been funded continuously for 25 years by the U.S. National Science Foundation with additional funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, NASA, DARPA, Army Research Laboratory and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.