people

Abhishek Nagaraj is an Assistant Professor at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, specializing in the Economics and Management of Innovation. His research combines economics, strategy, and computational methods to explore how digitization and openness influence knowledge production, scientific collaboration, and innovation. Abhishek holds a PhD from MIT Sloan, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Matteo Tranchero is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the core strategy course in the full-time MBA program. His research examines how the growing availability of big data is transforming innovation processes and strategic decision-making. Matteo holds a PhD from the Haas School of Business - UC Berkeley and masters from Univesity of Pisa.

Tim Sels is a Postdoc at the Data Innovation Lab and holds a PhD in Economics/Business Management. He is a former Fellow of the Fox Program at Yale University, where he conducted empirical analyses to uncover the effects of political polarization on individual and team performance. Tim has also worked as a Portfolio Manager for real estate investments at BVV.

Srikanth Janjirala is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in Management of Organizations (Macro track) at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. His research interests include innovation management, design innovation, and science of science. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta and a Bachelor’s in Engineering design from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Kris Gulati is a fourth-year Economics PhD Student at The University of California of Merced interested in the economics, politics, and science of science. He is an Emergent Ventures Fellow.

Gaveal Jiayue Fan is a first-year PhD student in Management of Organizations (Macro) at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. She is broadly interested in computational social science, with a focus on using network analysis and large-scale simulations to study innovation and society. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell with majors in the College Scholar Program, Information Science, and Sociology.

Arul Murugan is a Research Associate at the Data Innovation Lab. His interest lies in the intersection of Technology and People. He has worked in an early-stage AI startup for two years, after completing his Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani - Goa, India. He is planning to pursue graduate studies in Information Science.

Kenny is a sophomore majoring in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research (IEOR) and Data Science at UC Berkeley. His research interests span the intersection of Data Analytics and Operations Research, with a focus on applied AI & ML models, revenue management, fintech, and optimization algorithms. Beyond his academic pursuits, Kenny enjoys teaching, traveling, playing tennis, and singing with his acapella group on campus.

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COLLABORATORS and PAST PHD Students

Dr. Fernando Stipanicic - Former Research Collaborator
Dr. Sukhun Kang - Former PhD Student
Dr. Melissa Staha - Former PhD Student
Dr. Weilong Wang - Former Research Collaborator
Dr. Sahiba Chopra - Former PhD Student
Dr. Gauri Subramani - Former Research Collaborator
Dr. Hyo Kang - Former PhD Student

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Predoctoral ALUMNI

Eva Cheng (2024), @ London Business School
Randol Yao (2023), @ MIT Sloan

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MASTERS AND Undergraduate Alumni

Sushanti Kerani (2024), Berkeley Master’s Student
Aoife Dwan (2024), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Jennifer Chen (2024), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP), @ Stanford
Jai Singh (2024), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP), @ Stanford Predocs
Jiamei (Jasmine) Xu (2024), Remote RA, @ WashU in St. Louis
Sachin Srivastava (2023), Remote RA
Kushal Kumar Reddy (2023), Remote RA, @ Cornell
Keren Duque (2023), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Jiyoo Jeong (2023), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Adit Jain (2022), Remote RA, IIT Delhi, @ Cornell
Bikash Kumar Panda (2022), Remote RA, @ LBS
Nikhil Konatham (2022), Remote RA, @ UCLA
Maximus Santosa (2022), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Kartikey Pandey (2021), Remote RA, BITS Pilani
Sudeep Rao (2021), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Brian Qi (2020), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Aruna Sankaranarayanan (2019), Remote RA
Siyi Wu (2019), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Yi Wei (2019), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Ophelia Wang (2019), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Jonathan Wang (2019), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Dae Woong Ham (2019), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Matthew Avaylon (2019), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Leon Ming (2018), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Ariel Langer (2018), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Jun Zhang (2018), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)
Jiaqi (Richard) Meng (2017), Berkeley Undergrad (URAP)