Chris Glazner

Dr. Chris Glazner

MITRE, Falls Church, Virginia

Interests:

I'm a research engineer at MITRE, building simulation models to help the government think about making hard decisions in complex systems. I can't imagine too many things I'd rather be doing! As of late, I've been returning to my roots in a way and focusing on building models of systems to impact policy and investment choices in areas as diverse as tackling homelessness, dispositioning nuclear waste, and preparing our cities against bio-terrorism. In grad school, I built hybrid simulation models to help companies better understand how their architecture (from a strategy, process, incentives perspectives) impacted their potential behaviors. I'm interested in all sorts of related fields: social science modeling, policy modeling, behavioral economics...and most things you throw at me. I've done the majority of my work in a program called AnyLogic of the past few years. It's a highly versatile and outrageously expensive Swiss Army knife of a simulation environment, but it allows the easy development of system dynamics, agent based, discrete event, and especially hybrid models, all in one package. In general, I love building an understanding of how macro/micro structure/rules drives macro behaviors....and what we can do to influence the behavior of those systems. Fun stuff.

Objectives

I'm looking to meet amazing, interesting people and learn about diverse applications of these ideas. I'm really looking forward to the exchange of ideas among such a diverse group. Additionally, I'm excited about being able to take a step back from my day-to-day activities and just think deeply for a change. What a breath of fresh air! I am looking forward to a project that can in some way tackle decision making in complex, uncertain environments. I've got some stories and access to data.... :)

Personal

I'm an outdoor addict...I spend the majority of my free time whitewater kayaking, backcountry skiing, hiking & camping....that sort of thing. I know that while I'm here I'll be doing a weekend backpacking trip, and paddling whitewater in Colorado on another...plus more, I'm sure. Kindred folks are welcome to join. I'm also learning how to speak German in preparation for a year-long move to Düsseldorf, Germany immediately following CSSS. I'm staying in a house in the mountains and hiking to St. John's every day. I'm also learning how to play fiddle, so I guess it's a good thing I have an isolated place to myself!

Background:

• PhD, MIT, Engineering Systems, 2009 Dissertation: "Understanding Behavior of Enterprises using Hybrid Simulation Models of Enterprise Architecture"
• MS, MIT, Technology Policy Program, 2005
• BS, UT-Austin, Electrical Engineering, Signal/Image Processing, 2002
• BA, UT-Austin, Plan II, interdisciplinary Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Anthropology, 2002