What do you love about your current position?

I love that I’m surrounded by incredibly talented, curious, and supportive colleagues, at all levels, including graduate and undergraduate students. For me personally, being in this kind of intellectually stimulating environment was a top priority when choosing my career path. I also love the strong interdisciplinary culture at the University of Michigan: that I get to work with researchers and students coming from a wide range of disciplines, not only psychology, economics, and business, but also philosophy, medicine, or computer science. I believe that some of the best ideas in science are born at the intersection of fields, where researchers are less bound by the disciplinary norms and can challenge existing perspectives. Think of Prospect Theory or the entire field of Behavioral Economics…

How do you utilize your SDS training in your current position? In particular, how has the interdisciplinary nature of SDS doctoral training benefitted you in your current job?

I could never imagine myself confined within the boundaries of a single discipline, and the topics I’m most interested in (motivated beliefs, moral decisions, information-seeking) are inherently interdisciplinary. SDS is a truly unique environment in a sense that it not only encouraged me to pursue this holistic approach but also provided me with solid foundations in both decision science and a broad range of research methods. As an SDS graduate, I’m in the unique position that I feel equally confident talking to economists, neuroscientists, psychologists, or computer scientists, as I am always able to find common ground with them.

Please share a favorite moment of your time in SDS. It might be an anecdote, an event, a particular course or person who taught you a lot, or a project you started in graduate school.

My favorite moments were the SDS reunion parties at the annual SJDM conferences, which have become a semi-official SJDM tradition. It is these events that kept reminding me just how special SDS is as a department, and how cohesive and wide-spread our community is. It is without exaggeration to say that SDS has been at the forefront of decision science research for decades and it’s hard to find any topic in the broad JDM literature that SDS-affiliated researchers haven’t been involved with. During these events you can meet researchers affiliated with economics, psychology, information science, public policy, management, marketing departments, or working for the government or tech companies, having all graduated from the same program!

What advice would you give to current Ph.D. students, or to students considering applying to the SDS Ph.D. program?

My advice: diverge, then converge.

As an SDS student, I felt that the sheer range of topics, theories, and empirical tools that I had to familiarize myself with was overwhelming at first. To give a concrete example: in my first two semesters at SDS, I took courses in behavioral economics, judgment and decision-making, microeconomics, statistics, and brain imaging, while serving as a teaching assistant in courses on decision making and public policy. But, as I progressed in the program, I started to see the deep connections between these areas, and by the time I graduated, everything ‘clicked’. It is definitely a steeper, but also much more rewarding, learning curve than what grad students may experience in other, more ‘traditional’ uni-disciplinary programs. So start with an open mind and be patient: even if you feel confused or lost in the beginning, it will all make sense later.

SDS students also have considerably more flexibility in choosing their research topic and preferred empirical approach, compared to uni-disciplinary programs, which is both an opportunity and a challenge. Being a grad student, in general, requires a lot of independence, initiative, and setting goals for yourself, but this is especially true in interdisciplinary programs like SDS. During my early years in the program, I often felt like a kid in a candy store, wishing to do research on as many (wildly) different questions as possible, but over time I had to force myself to narrow down my focus. It’s always tempting to start exciting new projects, especially when you are surrounded by so many talented collaborators coming from various disciplines, but to become a successful researcher and expert, you should gradually refine your focus and commit yourself to whichever topic you feel the most passionate about.