People Spotlights
All Spotlights
- Edie and Lew Wasserman Professor of Social Science History; Ronald and Maxine Linde Leadership Chair, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech
Tracy Dennison
Our memories for epidemics are very short. We keep hearing that things will never be the same again, but that's not what the history tells us. Some things may change, but the kind of profound social reorganization one might expect is unlikely."
- Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics; Director, Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences
Jean-Laurent Rosenthal
We have to restore people's understanding that science and engineering solve a lot of social problems, while also sensitizing scientists and engineers to the reality that their solutions must find traction within societal structures that decide what succeeds and what fails.
- William D. Hacker Professor of Economics and Political Science, Emeritus
Charles R. Plott
Caltech’s continuing focus on the formalization, integration, and experimental testing of basic principles of economics and political science creates challenges, intellectual excitement, and an integrated body of science that continues to grow and find important applications that will span many decades."
- Linde Postdoctoral Scholar in Economic and Management Sciences (2017–19)
Teddy Mekonnen
We economic theorists come up with problems that are real and relevant, but some of our solutions are impractical, with implicit assumptions of infinite time, resources, or data. When you use computer science to approach economic questions, such as matching problems related to apps for ride-sharing or dating, those assumptions matter."
- Social and Decision Neuroscience Graduate Student
Qianying Wu
Here in HSS, I'm able to apply multidisciplinary approaches to my research—to understand typical and atypical human social behaviors with functional neuroimaging, and to characterize those behaviors using computational models."
- Fletcher Jones Foundation Postdoctoral Instructor in Contemporary Literature (2020–21)
Julia Hori
I think coming from a different discipline or background, the questions that emerge are just different. Also, perhaps the students are a little bit less afraid to ask certain grounding questions that a student with a major in English might not ask. And these questions actually help to facilitate the conversation tremendously."