Ray Reagans

Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, MIT Sloan

Research area: Economic sociology, more specifically how social networks shape learning rates and performance outcomes

What's so exciting about economic sociology?

The exciting idea in my area is context. Context affects what we learn, how quickly we learn, the choices and decisions we make, all adding up to determine the social and economic outcomes we experience.

Why did you choose a research career, and not something else?

I value autonomy and freedom of expression. I love the division of labor implicit in academics. If I don’t find the problem interesting, I don’t have to solve it. But it is this fact that makes the diversity of perspectives and interests so critical for our collective success.

What do you hope students will take away from PREDOC's offerings?

I believe students will discover problems that could become the passions that define their research careers.