Education 

• Ph.D., Computational Social Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 2012 o Dissertation: Agent-Based Modeling and Intelligence Analysis ▪ Dr. Robert Axtell (Chair), Computational Social Science, George Mason University

â–ª Dr. Hilton Root, School of Public Policy, George Mason University

â–ª Dr. Matthew Hendrey, Computational Social Science, George Mason University

â–ª Dr. Timothy Hoyt, Strategy and Policy, Naval War College

â–ª Dr. Steven Bankes, BAE Systems

• Certificate, Complex Systems Summer School, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 2007

• Certificate, Computational Social Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 2005

• MA, National Security Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1999

• BA with Distinction, Summa cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Political Science, Boston University, Boston, MA, 1997

Employment 

• 2016 – Present, Core Faculty, Pardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA

• 2014 – Present, Information Scientist, RAND Corporation, Arlington, VA

• 2013 – 2014, Senior Consultant, Logistics Management Institute, McLean, VA

• 2010 – 2013, Program Manager, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

• 2009 – 2010, Research Fellow, Logistics Management Institute, McLean, VA

• 2005 – 2009, Computational Social Scientist, BAE Systems, Arlington, VA

• 1997 – 2005, Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton, Arlington, VA

Publications 

“Computational Social Science and Intelligence Analysis,” Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 32, No. 5 (2017), pp. 579-599, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2017.1310968;

“Towards Computational Net Assessment,” Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation, Vol 14, No. 1 (2017), pp. 79-94, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1548512916681672;

Defining the Roles, Responsibilities, and Functions for Data Science Within the Defense Intelligence Agency, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 2016, co-authored with Bradley M. Knopp, Sina Beaghley, Rebeca Orrie, and Michael Watson, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1582.html;

“Transforming Producer/Consumer Relations through Modeling and Computation,” in Ruben Arcos and Randolph Pherson, eds., Transforming Intelligence Communication: Presenting Analysis in the Digital Era for Security, Defence, and Business (New York, NY: Palgrave, 2015), pp. 88-109;

“Dealing with Femtorisks in International Relations,” Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, Vol. 111 No. 49 (December 9, 2014), pp. 17356–17362, coauthored with Margaret Goud Collins, Simon A. Levin, Andrew W. Lo, Joshua Ramo, Ulf Dieckmann, Victor Kremenyuk, Arkady Kryazhimskiy, JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer, Ben Ramalingam, J. Stapleton Roy, Donald G. Saari, Stefan Thurner, and Detlof von Winterfeldt, http://www.pnas.org/content/111/49/17356;

Comprehensive Modeling of Air Carrier Behavior, 2013 Annual Report, Logistics Management Institute, Report NS308T3, March 2014, coauthored with Shahab Hasan, Brant M. Horio, Anthony H. DeCicco, Virginia L. Stouffer, Jeffery H. Goldsmith, and William B. Cotton;

A Review of Agent-Based Computational Economics, Logistics Management Institute, Report CI209T1, February 2013;

Security in the Age of Systemic Risk: Strategies, Tactics and Options for Dealing with Femtorisks and Beyond, IR-12-020, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, September 20, 2012, coauthored with M. Goud Collins, M. Clegg, U. Dieckmann, V. Kremenyuk, A. Kryazhimskiy, J. Linnerooth-Bayer, S. Levin, A. Lo, B. Ramalingam, J. Ramo, S. Roy, D. Saari, Z. Shtauber, K. Sigmund , J. Tepperman, S. Thurner, W. Yiwei, and D. von Winterfeldt, http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/IR-12-010.pdf;

“Chapter 7: Tin-2 Analysis” in Arnaud de Borchgrave, Thomas Sanderson, and David Gordon, The Power of Outreach: Leveraging Expertise on Threats in Southeast Asia (Center for Strategic and International Studies, April 2009), pp. 71-79, http://csis.org/publication/power-outreach;

“Technology and Concepts for Using the TIN to Enhance Alternative and Open Source Analysis” in Arnaud de Borchgrave, Thomas Sanderson, and Jacqueline Harned, Force Multiplier for Intelligence: Collaborative Open Source Networks (Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2007), pp. 58-66, http://csis.org/publication/force-multiplier-intelligence;

“Journey from “Analysis” to Inquiry: Technology and the Transformation of Counterterrorism Analysis” in John Yen and Robert Popp, eds., Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter Terrorism (IEEE/Wiley Interscience, 2006), pp. 315-329, coauthored with Desmond Saunders-Newton, http://www.amazon.com/Information-Technologies-Counter-Terrorism-Computational-Intelligence/dp/0471776157/;

“What Does Persistent Observation Mean?” Journal of Applied Analytics in Consulting, Vol. 1, No. 2 (August 2005), pp. 52-60, http://www.aaronbfrank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/What-is-Persistent-Observation.pdf;

“Pre-Conflict Management Tools: Technology for Winning the Peace,” Defense and Technology Paper, No. 11 (National Defense University, February 2005), http://www.ndu.edu/CTNSP/docUploaded/DTP11_PCMT.pdf;

“Get Real: Transformation and Targeting”, Defence Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2004), pp. 64-86, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1470243042000255272;

“Effects-Based Operations: Building the Analytic Tools”, Defense Horizons, No. 19 (October 2002), coauthored with Desmond Saunders-Newton, http://www.ndu.edu/CTNSP/docUploaded/DH19.pdf.

Presentations 

“Measuring Urban Complexity: A Conceptual Approach,” Army Science Board, February 21, Crystal City, VA;

“Organizing for Data Science at the Defense Intelligence Agency,” International Studies Association, February 2017, Baltimore, MD;

“Data Science, Simulation, and Strategic Targeting”, Scientific and Technical Intelligence Committee meeting on Nodal/Object Based Analysis, March 2016, McLean, VA;

“Computation and the Transformation of Producer/Consumer Relations,” International Studies Association, March 2014, Toronto, CA;

“Agent-Based Modeling and Producer/Consumer Relations,” Agent-Based Modeling Conference, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, March 2014, McLean, VA;

“Computational Social Science: Past, Present and Future,” The Human Dimension Army Science Planning and Strategy Meeting, Army Research Laboratory, November 2013, Potomac, MD;

“Computational Modeling and Simulation and New Approaches to Producer-Consumer Relations in Intelligence,” International Studies Association ISSS-ISAC Joint Annual Conference, October 2013, Washington, DC;

“The Philosophy of Science and Intelligence: Rethinking Science in Support of Intelligence,” International Studies Association Annual Conference, April 2012, San Diego, CA;

“Modeling Identity,” Countering Transnational Threats, Military Operations Research Society, December 2011, McLean, VA;

“Computational Intelligence Analysis: A Contractor’s Perspective,” Countering Transnational Threats, Military Operations Research Society, December 2011, McLean, VA;

“Agent-Based Modeling and Intelligence,” Directorate of National Intelligence Agent-Based Modeling Conference, December 2011, McLean, VA;

“Strategic Intelligence, Analytic Tradecraft, and Agent-Based Modeling,” Computational Social Science Seminar Series, George Mason University, November 2011, Fairfax, VA;

“Computational Social Science and Complex Military Operations,” Social Science Underpinnings of Complex Operations, Military Operations Research Society, October 2010, Arlington, VA;

“Toward an Ecological Theory of Military Revolutions,” 2nd World Congress on Social Simulation, July 2008, Fairfax, VA;

“Thoughts on the Use of ABM in Defense and Intelligence Analysis,” 2nd World Congress on Social Simulation, July 2008, Fairfax, VA;

“An Agent-Based Model of Identity Politics,” poster accepted for 2nd World Congress on Social Simulation, July 2008, Fairfax, VA, co-authored with David P. Cedel and Jonathan Goldstein;

“Navigating Political Networks,” Agents 2006, Chicago, IL, September 2006, coauthored with Michael Lack, David Scherzer, and Desmond Saunders-Newton;

“Advanced Technology for Non-Traditional Security Analysis,” Military Operations Research Society Workshop: Analysis for Non-Traditional Challenges: Methods and Tools, Laurel, MD, February 2006;

“Computational Policy Analysis and the Avoidance of Intrastate Conflict,” Association for Public Policy Management and Analysis Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., November 2005;

“Can Many “Littles” Make a Much? One Approach for Transforming Underspecified Theory into Agency-Oriented Rules and Behaviors,” Agents 2005, Chicago, IL, October 2005, coauthored with Desmond Saunders-Newton, Larry Roszman, and Robert Axtell;

“Avoiding 21st Century Societal and Regional Conflicts through Advanced Technologies for Understanding, Anticipating and Shaping,” IEEE, Big Sky, MT, June 2005, coauthored with Desmond Saunders-Newton and Robert Popp;

“Command and Control of Networked Organizations,” North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science, Pittsburgh, PA, June 2004, coauthored with Desmond Saunders-Newton;

“Agency, Security & Policy: The Application of Multi-Agent Simulation to National Security Issues,” Presentation at 2nd Annual Human Complex Systems Conference, Lake Arrowhead, CA, March 2003, coauthored with Desmond Saunders-Newton.

Additional Conference Activities 

• Program Committee Member, Computational Social Science Society of the Americas Annual Conference, November 2017, Santa Fe, NM;

• Panel Chair and Discussant, Big Data and Intelligence Analysis, International Studies Association Annual Conference, February 2017, Baltimore, MD;

• Program Committee Member, Computational Social Science Society of the Americas Annual Conference, November 2016, Santa Fe, NM;

• Program Committee Member, Winter Simulation Conference, December 2015, Huntington Beach, CA;

• Program Committee Member, Computational Social Science Society of the Americas Annual Conference, October/November 2015, Santa Fe, NM;

• Program Committee Member, 5th World Congress on Social Simulation, November 2014, Sao Paulo, Brazil;

• Panel Chair and Discussant, Computational Approaches to Intelligence Analysis, International Studies Association Annual Conference, April 2013, San Francisco, CA;

• Discussant, Conflict, Security and Strategy in the Internet Age, International Studies Association Annual Conference, April 2012, San Diego, CA;

• Participant, Security in the Age of Systemic Risk, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna AU, June 2011;

• Program Committee, Complex Adaptive Systems and the Threshold Effect: Views from the Natural and Social Sciences, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Arlington VA, November 2009;

• Participant, International Affairs and Complexity, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe NM, August 2008.

Reviews 

• Journal of Conflict Resolution

• Journal of Strategic Security