From Afghanistan's Battlefields to Fighting Human Trafficking: One Researcher's Choices
Microsoft Research has released a podcast conversation with lab director Chris White, covering why he chose technology that takes on war and crime, and how he decides which problems are worth working on.
On October 20 local time, Microsoft Research published a conversation with Chris White, who leads Catalyst Lab. Program manager Weishung Liu hosted. The discussion centers on White’s experience with wartime data analysis and tools to counter human trafficking. At its core, the conversation asks what role technology can play in solving real-world problems.
Why a postdoc went to Afghanistan
The war in Afghanistan was what pushed White to test the value of his research in the field. In the summer of 2010, as a postdoctoral researcher, he worked alongside experts from a range of disciplines at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The project examined whether new approaches to data analysis could help prevent violence and protect troops.
The work did not end with research findings. When the program wrapped up, DARPA asked White to demonstrate the value of that research on the ground. He stepped away from academic research for a time and helped lead advanced technology operations in Afghanistan.
He later worked on a search tool built to fight human trafficking, designed to comb the dark web, a part of the internet ordinary search engines never reach, for leads. Liu noted that White received a U.S. presidential award in 2016 for his contributions to countering human trafficking. The conversation asks why he kept throwing himself at problems this hard.
How do you decide what to research?
White credits curiosity and the mentors who helped him along the way for setting him on a research path. He explained that he was drawn to people who discover new things and work to understand territory that isn’t yet well mapped. Mentors at Oklahoma State University, Johns Hopkins University, and Harvard University helped him find both a research field and opportunities to continue his studies. Debate, which he took part in as a child, taught him to look at a single issue from multiple angles and to weigh the evidence, he recalled.
His approach to deciding where technology should be applied was also shaped by his father’s teaching. White said his father emphasized humility and service. Every time something good happened, his father would remind him to go clean a bathroom, a habit meant to instill respect for other people and the work they do. White said he had recently volunteered to clean bathrooms at a local event.
The conversation then turns to how he maintains hope after encountering terrorism, human trafficking, and organized crime. White explained that what sustains him is the belief that he and his colleagues can help change the situation. Which problems to pick and solve is a theme that surfaces again and again throughout the discussion.
Running through White’s experience is a consistent goal: connecting data analysis and search tools to the work of protecting people. The questions now are what results this goal has produced in practice and what research problem he will choose next.