Jeff Montgomery edited interdisciplinary 2.tex  about 9 years ago

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Anything that falls under the umbrella of Data Science and Information Science is intrinsically interdisciplinary and the classes I took at UCLA where as interdisciplinary as it gets. During my first two years as a Ph.D., I took classes such as  \begin{itemize}  \item Methods for social network analysis (Sociology) (\textbf{Sociology})  \item Critical studies of architecture (Architecture) (\textbf{Architecture})  \item Geographic thought and the concept of belonging (Geography) (\textbf{Geography})  \item Thinking about thinking (Cognitive Science) (\textbf{Cognitive Science})  \item Formal Modeling and Simulations in Social Sciences (Complex Systems) (\textbf{Complex Systems})  \item Data and Media Arts (Design School) (\textbf{Design})  \end{itemize}  A pretty mixed bag, huh? (\href{http://albertopepe.com/phdclasses}{Full list here}). While it all sounds a bit eccentric, these were the most formative, nurturing years of my life (I will discuss this in detail in a separate post). These classes instructed me on research methods I did not know about: for my dissertation \cite{Pepe}, I used graph theory (physics), survey research (sociology), and "complex systems" methods. These classes also let me meet, collaborate, and publish papers with scholars in other disciplines: sociology/identity \cite{Pepe_2012}, social media analysis \cite{Shuai_2012}, semantic web theory \cite{Rodriguez_2010}, and even music research \cite{Rodriguez_2008}. In the final year of my Ph.D., I was lucky enough to meet a Professor of Astronomy at Harvard - \href{https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~agoodman/}{Alyssa Goodman} - who was passionate about data, visualization, digital libraries, Open Access, and Open Science. We immediately struck a chord and she offered me a Postdoc as the in-house information scientist at the \href{https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/}{Center for Astrophysics}. So, a return to \textbf{Astrophysics}, some people thought! Well, not really, because at Harvard I also became a fellow of the most excellent \href{http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/}{Berkman Center for Internet and Society} (\textbf{Law}) and \href{http://www.iq.harvard.edu/}{Institute for Quantitative Social Science} (\textbf{Social Sciences}).