I build noticing tools.

Noticing is the start of perception, and perception is a sensory logic puzzle that leads to taste. Taste is both sensation and point of view — the first unconscious, the second trainable through structured observation, vocabulary, and frameworks. It’s what lets one chef, designer, or scientist notice what others miss. I study how experts build it across fields and design systems that make it teachable to anyone: sensory art that reveals invisible patterns, research on perception and creative judgment, programs that train future creators, and design work in the world.

Current projects: finishing Flavor Fluency (Penguin, 2027) · growing work from NCEAS residency · teaching at Dartmouth · establishing a new lab and program

Forthcoming

Flavor Fluency

Penguin Random House / Dutton · 2027

My forthcoming book introduces the first notation system for flavor perception. More →

New!

Natural Artificial Labs

Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth · launches March 2026

A new lab and program of research, fellowship, and exhibition — making invisible systems perceptible through design, data, and sensory experience. More →

Sensing the Invisible

Sensory art as a form of science communication — exhibitions and installations that reveal invisible patterns in ecology, chemistry, and emotion through forests you can taste, ecologies you can smell, notation systems you can combine, and feelings you can eat.

Taste the Changing Forest

ICA Boston · November 2025

Smell the Changing Forest

ICA Boston · November 2025

Beneath the Surface

In development

Taste Cartographies

NCEAS, UC Santa Barbara · 2025

Sensory Compositions — A Day in the Life, Unbundled

Sensory Composition Project

Umbria Art Residency, Italy · 2014–2015

Feelings for Dinner

MIT + Study Restaurant · 2015

Studying How We Perceive and Create

Research and applied products that turn perception, taste, judgment, and creative decision-making into something you can study, measure, and design with.

Radial visualization of 31 cognitive biases in creative project decision-making — blue petals show success patterns, pink petals show failure patterns, grouped by six emergent clusters

Design Intelligences

Global · 6 continents · 2010–present

Desirability Lab — interactive visualization of design taste across 491 collectors

Visualizing Design Taste

Data Visualization · 2013–present

Flavor Genome Project

2015–present

Data visualization of 100 outfits as radial starburst shapes, encoding ease, agreement, and proportion detection across 10 figures

100 Ways of Seeing

Harvard SEAS · 2015–2021

Problem Genome Project patterns page showing cluster visualizations of structurally similar unsolved problems

The Structural DNA of Unsolved Problems

Harvard · 2013–2014 · Dartmouth · 2025–present

Students working through a project-based design challenge — research on evidence-based design and innovation education

Towards Evidence-Based Design and Innovation Education

Harvard · MIT · Cambridge · 2011–present

Flavor Fluency Film Series

How Chefs Become Fluent in Flavor · 2017

AI-Kitchen Series

Algorithms of Popularity · 2016–2017

Chef League

iOS App · 2019–present

Interactive climate data visualization at Museum of Science

Interactive Visualizations of Our City

Museum of Science / IEEE / NASA · 2024

Training Future Creators

Programs and courses that teach designers and engineers to notice, build iteratively, and collaborate across disciplines.

Design Initiative at Dartmouth

Dartmouth · 2025–present

RISD/Brown joint MA in Design Engineering program

Rhode Island School of Design + Brown University Joint MA Program

RISD + Brown · 2021–2025

Harvard Design + Engineering Programs

Harvard SEAS · 2011–2021

Design Survivor

Harvard · 2013–2021 · Dartmouth · 2026+

Innovators’ Practice

ES21 · Harvard · 2012–2021

Cultural Entrepreneurship in NYC

Harvard SEAS + HBS · 2013–2014

Integrated Design

ES 285 · Harvard SEAS + HBS · 2018–2021

Human-Centered Algorithm Design

ES91R · Harvard SEAS · Fall 2017

Design in the World

Bringing design research into organizations — robotics, luxury, museums, remote work, disaster relief, and more.

Gita — cargo-carrying sidewalk robot by Piaggio Fast Forward

Gita Robot

Piaggio Fast Forward · 2015–2018

Kering sustainability strategy — the conglomerate behind Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga

Kering / Gucci Sustainability

Kering · 2010–2011 (plan to last to 2025)

Off Their Plate

Pandemic Relief · 2020

Product & Experience Design Research

Desirability Lab · 2013+

Digital nomads working in a co-working space in Ubud, Bali

Digital Nomads and the Future of Work

Harvard · 2015–2018

Designing Innovation

Speaking & Workshops

Sport Better Cities

Independent research · 2014–2019

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Education

Postdoc MIT · Visiting Scholar Stanford · PhD Univ of Cambridge · MPhil Univ of Cape Town · Diplomado PUC Chile · BS & BA ASU Barrett Honors College

Recognition

Thinkers50 Emerging Thinker · Harvard Crimson Top 15 Professor · Artist in Residence, National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis · Vermont Studio Center Residency · Fulbright Scholar (Spain)

Clients

Gucci · Kering · Uber · IKEA · Disney · Microsoft · Google · Intel · IDEO · General Mills · Bosch · PWC · Swarovski · Tesco · SAB Miller · Dandelion · Expedia

Press

CNN · Wall Street Journal · Boston Magazine · Forbes · Kinfolk Magazine · VentureBeat · Independent · Outside · Adweek · Fortune · HBR