People Spotlights
All Spotlights
![Cindy Weinstein](https://divisions-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/hss70/images/48.2e16d0ba.fill-432x432-c100.jpg)
- Eli and Edythe Broad Professor of English
Cindy Weinstein
Caltech is a wonderful place to pursue original research; it lets your interests determine the work you do. There is both a tremendous amount of freedom and an extremely high level of expectation, and these two combine to create a terrific intellectual environment that helps scholars generate their best work."
![Visualization headshot for Marina Agranov](https://divisions-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/hss70/images/Visualization_headshot_for_Ag.2e16d0ba.fill-432x432-c100.jpg)
- Professor of Economics
Marina Agranov
There are good reasons to do experiments. Applying theories in the real world before testing them, and ruining someone’s real life, seems too high a cost."
![Alex Hirsch 2021 headshot](https://divisions-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/hss70/images/069_JSP_HirschFamily_082421_-.2e16d0ba.fill-432x432-c100.jpg)
- Professor of Political Science
Alexander V. Hirsch
There are other institutions that are wonderful at teaching and wonderful at research. But at Caltech, it seems to me that to be wonderful at teaching means that you teach the students what the frontier of research is—that teaching and research are not different things."
![Visualization headshot for Jonathan Katz](https://divisions-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/hss70/images/Visualization_headshot_for_Ka.2e16d0ba.fill-432x432-c100.jpg)
- Kay Sugahara Professor of Social Sciences and Statistics
Jonathan N. Katz
Money is very important in politics, but all the previous studies about campaign finance were restricted to relatively large donors, leading to a skewed picture of this important political activity. Given changes in technology, smaller donors are becoming both more numerous and important."
![Visualization headshot for DEan Mobbs](https://divisions-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/hss70/images/Visualization_headshot_for_Mo.2e16d0ba.fill-432x432-c100.jpg)
- Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Caltech Brain Imaging Center; Director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center
Dean Mobbs
Caltech allows researchers to be risky. Risk is an important part of science. It's where discovery occurs."
![Catherine Jurca](https://divisions-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/hss70/images/26.2e16d0ba.fill-432x432-c100.jpg)
- Professor of English and Visual Culture
Catherine Jurca
We live in a world of images and screens, and visual literacy is an important part of being an educated, thoughtful person in the world."