Vaughn Tan

Graduate Student in Organizational Behavior / Sociology

Biographical Note

I use old skool ethnography to investigate how groups organize themselves to come up with new ideas and ways of working—in other words, I hang out with innovative groups to see how they form and what makes them more likely to succeed. My field sites are teams in Europe and North America working on culinary research and development.

I grew up in Singapore, served in the Singapore Army as a logistician, and concentrated in Social Studies at Harvard College (my thesis examined the adoption of Japanese food as haute cuisine in 1980s America). Inexplicably hired by Google after college, I worked there on advertising partnerships, Google Maps and Earth, the Lunar XPRIZE, and structured data products. I moved to the Anderson Ranch Art Foundation in May 2008 before returning to Cambridge.

I am currently affiliated with the Center for European Studies at Harvard, and with ID3 in Cambridge, Mass.

10/22/2011

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Organizations, amorphous boundaries, knowledge production, boundary permeability, information efficiency, multiplex networks

Previous Degrees

AB, Social Studies; Harvard 2005

Suggested Links

Contact

617-496-5794 (FAX)

Morgan Hall T71
Harvard Business School
Boston, MA 02163

William James Hall 563
33 Kirkland St
Cambridge, MA 02138