Principal Investigators
Marshall Van Alstyne
Principal Investigator
Marshall Van Alstyne
Professor Van Alstyne is one of the world's foremost experts on network business models and coauthor of the international bestseller Platform Revolution. He conducts research on information economics, covering such topics as the economics of speech markets, platform economics, intellectual property, social effects of technology, and productivity effects of information. He has been a major contributor to the theory of two-sided networks taught worldwide, and to the theory of platforms as inverted firms, applied in antitrust law. His work has received more than 27,000 citations, includes a top 50 all-time article for Harvard Business Review, and was recognized by Thinkers 50 as among the most important management contributions globally. Research impact ranks in the top two percent of all scientists.
Honors include two patents, National Science Foundation SaTC, IOC, SGER, SBIR, iCorp and Career Awards, a dozen best paper awards, as well as INFORMS IS 2020 and Herbert Simon 2021 awards for research with real-world impact. Articles or commentary have appeared in Science, Nature, Management Science, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He is a husband and dad, who loves dogs, exercise, travel, and questions of governance.
Honors include two patents, National Science Foundation SaTC, IOC, SGER, SBIR, iCorp and Career Awards, a dozen best paper awards, as well as INFORMS IS 2020 and Herbert Simon 2021 awards for research with real-world impact. Articles or commentary have appeared in Science, Nature, Management Science, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He is a husband and dad, who loves dogs, exercise, travel, and questions of governance.
Nina Mazar
Principal Investigator
Nina Mazar
Nina Mazar is a behavioral scientist at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, where she focuses on the impact of technology on decision-making, ethical behavior, and social impact. She co-founded BEworks, a pioneering consulting firm now part of the kyu collective, dedicated to applying behavioral science to real-world challenges. Nina also contributes to the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at Wharton and has been involved with the World Bank's Behavioral Insights Initiative (eMBeD) and the Behavioral Economics in Action research center at Rotman (BEAR).
Her extensive research has been widely published and featured in major media outlets such as NPR, BBC, and The New York Times. Nina has received various awards, including the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award, and her work is highlighted in New York Times bestsellers like Drive by Daniel Pink. She served as the 2019 president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) and has been recognized as one of “The 40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs Under 40 in the World” by Poets & Quants.
Nina holds Master of Science and Ph.D. equivalents in Business from Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and was a post-doctoral associate of Prof. Dan Ariely at MIT, where she researched and lectured in the Sloan School of Management and Media Lab's eRationality group.
Her extensive research has been widely published and featured in major media outlets such as NPR, BBC, and The New York Times. Nina has received various awards, including the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award, and her work is highlighted in New York Times bestsellers like Drive by Daniel Pink. She served as the 2019 president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) and has been recognized as one of “The 40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs Under 40 in the World” by Poets & Quants.
Nina holds Master of Science and Ph.D. equivalents in Business from Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and was a post-doctoral associate of Prof. Dan Ariely at MIT, where she researched and lectured in the Sloan School of Management and Media Lab's eRationality group.
David Rand
Principal Investigator
David Rand
David Rand is the Erwin H. Schell Professor and Professor of Management Science and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, the director of the Applied Cooperation Initiative, and an affiliate of the MIT Institute of Data, Systems, and Society, and the Initiative on the Digital Economy.
Bridging the fields of cognitive science, behavioral economics, and social psychology, David's research combines behavioral experiments run online and in the field with mathematical and computational models to understand people's attitudes, beliefs, and choices. His work uses a cognitive science perspective grounded in the tension between more intuitive versus deliberative modes of decision-making. He focuses on illuminating why people believe and share misinformation and “fake news,” understanding political psychology and polarization, and promoting human cooperation. David received his BA in computational biology from Cornell University in 2004 and his PhD in systems biology from Harvard University in 2009, was a post-doctoral researcher in Harvard University's Department of Psychology from 2009 to 2013, and was an Assistant and then Associate Professor (with tenure) of Psychology, Economics, and Management at Yale University prior to joining the faculty at MIT.
David's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the American Economic Review, Psychological Science, Management Science, New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Political Science, and has received widespread attention from print, radio, TV, and social media outlets. He has also written popular press articles for outlets including the New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, and the Psychological Observer. He was named to Wired magazine's Smart List 2012 of “50 people who will change the world,” chosen as a 2012 Pop!Tech Science Fellow, and awarded the 2015 Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Research, fact-checking researcher of the year in 2017 by the Poyner Institute's International Fact-Checking Network, and the 2020 FABBS Early Career Impact Award from the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. Papers he has coauthored have been awarded Best Paper of the Year in Experimental Economics, Social Cognition, and Political Methodology.
Bridging the fields of cognitive science, behavioral economics, and social psychology, David's research combines behavioral experiments run online and in the field with mathematical and computational models to understand people's attitudes, beliefs, and choices. His work uses a cognitive science perspective grounded in the tension between more intuitive versus deliberative modes of decision-making. He focuses on illuminating why people believe and share misinformation and “fake news,” understanding political psychology and polarization, and promoting human cooperation. David received his BA in computational biology from Cornell University in 2004 and his PhD in systems biology from Harvard University in 2009, was a post-doctoral researcher in Harvard University's Department of Psychology from 2009 to 2013, and was an Assistant and then Associate Professor (with tenure) of Psychology, Economics, and Management at Yale University prior to joining the faculty at MIT.
David's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the American Economic Review, Psychological Science, Management Science, New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Political Science, and has received widespread attention from print, radio, TV, and social media outlets. He has also written popular press articles for outlets including the New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, and the Psychological Observer. He was named to Wired magazine's Smart List 2012 of “50 people who will change the world,” chosen as a 2012 Pop!Tech Science Fellow, and awarded the 2015 Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Research, fact-checking researcher of the year in 2017 by the Poyner Institute's International Fact-Checking Network, and the 2020 FABBS Early Career Impact Award from the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. Papers he has coauthored have been awarded Best Paper of the Year in Experimental Economics, Social Cognition, and Political Methodology.
Gordon Pennycook
Principal Investigator
Gordon Pennycook
My research focus is on reasoning and decision-making, broadly defined. I investigate the distinction between intuitive processes ('gut feelings') and more deliberative ('analytic') reasoning processes and am principally interested in the causes (a) and consequences (b) of analytic thinking. That is, what makes us think and why is it (thinking) important? This is critical to understand if we're ever to find better ways to make decisions. Alas, a lot of our problems as a species come from errors that we make during reasoning and decision-making - from global warming to health issues (including, but not limited to, the spread of pandemics) to political polarization and misinformation - and, thus, understanding why people make these errors is a major focus of mine.
A recent review of my theoretical perspective and much of my research can be found here.
A recent review of my theoretical perspective and much of my research can be found here.
Ran Canetti
Principal Investigator
Ran Canetti
Ran Canetti is a professor of Computer Science at Boston University and the director of the Center for Reliable Information System and Cyber Security. He is also a Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research and an associate editor of the Journal of Cryptology and Information and Computation. Canetti graduated from the Weizmann Institute of Science, was a researcher at IBM Watson Research Center, a research scientist at MIT, and a professor at Tel Aviv University. Canetti's research interests span multiple aspects of cryptography and information security, with emphasis on the design, analysis, and use of cryptographic protocols.
Mayank Varia
Principal Investigator
Mayank Varia
Mayank Varia is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences at Boston University. He also serves as their Director of Undergraduate Studies and the Civic Tech Hub Director. His research explores the computational and social aspects of cryptography, and his work has been featured in media outlets like CNET, The Hill, and ZDNet. His designs for accessible, equitable, and socially-responsible data analysis have been used to determine the gender wage gap, subcontracting to minority-owned businesses, and repeat offenders of sexual assault inspired by the #MeToo movement. He serves on the United States Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building and the United Nations Privacy-Preserving Techniques Task Team to promote the use of cryptographically protected data analysis and shape the laws and policies surrounding its use. He received a PhD in mathematics from MIT in 2010.
