He has also been director of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems[1] at the University of Michigan (2009–2014) and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute (2000–2005 and 2007–present).
His specific research interests include path dependence, culture, collective wisdom, adaptation, and computational models of social life.
In 1993 he earned a Ph.D. in Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences also from the Kellogg School under the guidance of Stanley Reiter and Roger Myerson (his advisors), Mark Satterthwaite, and Matthew O. Jackson.
The book summarizes and extends the material covered in the online course and promotes a "many-model thinking"[clarification needed] approach to confronting complex problems.
He has also been the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Initiative on Inequality and Poverty Research Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.