Research
My research looks at how data shapes real systems – how it is created, used, and shared, and how it influences the way organizations and communities make decisions. I study data not just as information, but as a resource that grows, moves, and creates value.
This view led me to develop the ideas of data capital and the data industry, which describe how data gains value and how it travels across technical and institutional settings. My work connects data science with economic thinking, focusing on how data assets form and how they support areas such as healthcare, transportation, and other social and technical systems.
A continuing theme in my work is how to make data easier to understand and easier to use in a responsible way. I am interested in when and how data can be shared across institutions while still remaining reliable, grounded, and aligned with human judgment.
Profile
Selected Initiatives
Harvard Data Entrepreneurship Club
– Applied Data Entrepreneurship & Governance (2018 -)
Fudan Institute for Data Industry
– Data Resources, Assets, and Capital Research (2013 -)
– Practitioner-led Data Systems in Real-world Settings (2024-)
Research interests span data science, the world economy of data, and applied data systems in healthcare and large-scale socio-technical systems.