General Information

I completed a joint PhD program with the departments of Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI in December of 2011. I also earned a certificate in complex systems from the Center for the Study of Complex Systems (CSCS) in 2008. If CSCS offered a PhD then I would have gotten that instead of the joint degree because my research focus is complex systems, but they don't. From February 2010 until July 2011 I was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto (which included co-teaching a first-year MBA core course). Careful readers will realize that I completed a postdoc before finishing my PhD -- that's not common, but that's what I did.

Before coming to UM I completed a Master of Science degree in Mathematics at Northeastern University in Boston. Previous to that I participated in several courses at Boston University, mostly in Game Theory and Mathematics, where I was accepted as a PhD student in economics, but I have nothing to show for that time except the knowledge gained and plenty to complain about. I hold two bachelor degrees, both received from the University of Florida in 1999. A Bachelor of Science in Economics from the College of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I have also studied Japanese language for two months at Eurocentres intensive language program in Kanazawa, Japan.

My primary field of inquiry is the highly interdiscplinary field of Complex Adaptive Systems - especially agent-based modeling, network theory, data analysis and visualization, and a huge range of methodological and conceptual issues involved in exploiring complexity theory. Because of this, the particular projects I engage in are typically heavy in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, and Philosophy. For example, my dissertation focused on the evolution of prosociality (e.g. cooperation, coordination, contribution) through a mechanism I call "preferential detachment" and its implications on moral experience. The project included elements from game theory and institutional design, implemented through a dynamic networked agent-based model analyzed with nonparametric statistics, a Markov model of the same phenomenon, and a philosophical chapter that builds on research from animal and human psychology, biological evolution, and neurology. You can find out more about my research from ComplexityBlog, and...

...here are some of the things that excite me:

Papers

I've separated my papers into two sections: one for technical papers in methodology, mathematics, or anything else with equations and one for everything else (which for me is usually philosophy papers). I present them with their abstracts and any other pertinent information. Most of these were written for classes -occasionally worked afterwards but typically not. Others are larger projects, pedagogical works, or polished notes. Works in progress, short papers, and sketches of ideas are all published on my research blog.

Computer Models

Since my main research thrust is complex systems methodology, I have developed a high level of capability in building computer simulations, especially agent-based models of complex adatpive systems. These include system dynamics models, game theoretic models, network models, free-roaming agent models, and various hybrids of these types. In this section I will descibe and and present some of the models that I've worked on in the context of modeling (i.e. the technique itself rather than what it's a model of).

Presentation Materials

If you are looking for the slides to my ICPSR summer program in complex systems agent-based modeling workshop slides, then they are here. Slides from some of my other academic presentations are available here for your review and reuse...or for nostalgia purposes.