Mark Newman has made foundational contributions to the study of networked systems such as technological, social and biological networks, using mathematical and computational methods adapted from theoretical physics. Among other things he has developed a range of mathematical models of networks, formal measures of network structure and algorithms for the analysis of network data particularly in the area of community detection, all of which are now in wide use within the field. He has also worked extensively on applications of his ideas to areas including computer networks, ecological networks, and the spread of disease over the networks of contact between individuals.

Newman is the Anatol Rapoport Distinguished University Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan and a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has previously been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Simons Fellow in Theoretical Physics.