About

The Serendipity Society is comprised of researchers, practitioners and the serendipity-curious, examining the complex phenomenon of serendipity from a variety of disciplinary and organizational perspectives. Given the growing interest among business and industry, public and academic institutions in developing spaces for serendipity, our mission is to create and nurture an active network of serendipity researchers and practitioners, which

• supports collaboration among senior and junior scholars,

• promotes rigorous and interdisciplinary research,

• works toward the consolidation of practice and the development of theory,

• creates a platform from which to develop serendipity research as an independent field of study,

• provides a resource of expertise on serendipity to which organizations, funders, innovators, and planners can turn.

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The Serendipity Society was co-founded in 2016 by Lori McCay-Peet and Samantha Copeland, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and co-chaired by Wendy Ross from 2019 to 2024. 

Since 2026, the Serendipity Society is chaired by Annelien Smets, head of the Steering Committee also consisting of three senior Society members: Lennart Björneborn, longtime 'SerSoc resource librarian'; Samantha Copeland, SerSoc co-founder and former chair; and Sabrina Sauer, director of the Digital Creativity and Serendipity Lab.