Before joining the business school he was the National Science Foundation Synthetic Biology ERC Postdoctoral Fellow resident at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies. His research focuses on leadership, international relations, and the social and political implications of technological change. He has published articles on leadership, the power of the financial sector, military innovation, network-centric warfare, and the security and economic implications of synthetic biology in Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Parameters, Politics and the Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology, Slate, and the Washington Post. His first book, "Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter," was published in September 2012 by Harvard Business Review Press. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Jeopardy Champion.