He is also the Director of Research for the Center for Complexity in Business. His interests center around the application of complex systems tools, like agent-based modeling, social network analysis, machine learning, and geographic information systems, to a wide variety of domains areas, such as, diffusion of innovation, evolution of cooperation, Web 2.0, and human-environmental interactions. Dr. Rand completed his dissertation in 2005 at the University of Michigan under John Holland and Rick Riolo on the use of genetic algorithms in dynamic environments, and went on to become a postdoctoral fellow at the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) before his current position. He has presented at conferences worldwide and has significant experience teaching hands-on agent-based modeling.