Research Areas
I am a sociologist with the Statistical Sciences Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory with broad interests in qualitative and quantitative social science. I have a PhD in Sociology and Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego.
Computing and Social Science
Much of my current work falls at the intersection of sociology and computing. This includes the social and organizational aspects of computing and data science, with a focus on scientific computing, data management, and cyber security. It also includes social network analysis and other computational social science methods, which I have used to address topics relating to organizational sociology, education research, political instability, and social impacts of disasters.
Science and Technology Studies
My broader research interests are in the field of Science and Technology Studies, with a focus on maintenance, repair, and resilience in infrastructure systems. My publications have also covered many other topics, including post-Cold War developments in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, the impacts of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, safety as an organizing factor in science laboratories, the transfer of engineering knowledge from laboratories to practice, and the organizational context of infrastructure engineering.
Social Science Practice
In my work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, I apply methods and findings from the social and behavioral sciences to a variety of more practical problems. These include data and knowledge management, infrastructure analysis, program management and evaluation, and risk assessment and uncertainty quantification for complex systems.
Methods
Ethnography, interviewing, qualitative and quantitative text analysis, social network analysis, statistical analysis, knowledge elicitation, ontology development.