Bailey Flanigan: A Journey Driven by Curiosity and Interdisciplinary Excellence
As a child, Bailey Flanigan nurtured a spirit of exploration on her family’s farmland in Wisconsin, a setting that fueled her diverse interests. From constructing booby traps and engaging in experimental projects to delving into medicine, writing fiction, and music, Flanigan’s curiosity knew no bounds. She even envisioned nonprofit organizations aimed at reducing social inequality.
An Early Inclination Toward Creativity
During her high school years, Flanigan gravitated toward subjects that allowed her to express creativity. “I felt unmotivated to take all the AP [advanced placement] classes for it. My interest was piqued by courses that allowed me to be creative—where I could use math to solve real-world problems, write creatively, make music, connect distant ideas, or delve deeply into the humanities—and I worked obsessively on those courses as an opportunity to explore my intuitions and interests,” she says. Her inclination to create and think independently set the stage for her future endeavors.
An Interdisciplinary Career Path
Today, Flanigan is a joint faculty member at MIT, bridging the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, the Departments of Political Science, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). She is also a senior researcher in the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. Her academic journey is marked by research appointments at institutions including the University of Wisconsin, the National Institutes of Health, Google, and several prestigious universities. Her current research is focused on employing computational and mathematical tools to enhance democratic participation.
Flanigan’s career has spanned disciplines from medicine and bioengineering to public health and economics, culminating in her role at MIT. “My cross-disciplinary career was purely a result of pursuing the problems that I thought were most pressing or inspiring at the time,” she explains. This path has equipped her with the ability to learn new disciplines with ease, a skill crucial to her research.
From Medicine to Public Health and Beyond
While at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Flanigan’s work in cancer research sparked a realization about the broader impact of her work. Concerned that her research might only benefit a wealthy segment of the population, she pivoted to public health, researching HIV detection devices suited for resource-limited settings. This shift led her to study economics, seeking to understand the systemic issues behind resource disparities.
Guidance and Mentorship
Throughout her academic journey, mentors played a pivotal role in shaping Flanigan’s path. Steven Wright, a professor at UW-Madison, guided Flanigan in her exploration of science, social inequality, and economics. His support, along with encouragement from scholarship office heads Debbie Berger and Julie Stubbs, inspired Flanigan to apply for a Goldwater Scholarship, broadening her perceived horizons.
Flanigan’s time at Princeton, working as a research assistant in economics, introduced her to formal mathematics. Under Professor Evita Nestoridi’s guidance, Flanigan discovered a passion for mathematical proof, ultimately leading her to pursue a doctoral program in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. There, she explored social choice and democratic decision-making, drawing inspiration from economist Al Roth.
Innovative Contributions to Democratic Participation
Flanigan’s contributions include algorithms for selecting participants in town hall meetings, aimed at ensuring representative participation. These tools, available on panelot.org, help align representation with selection processes, promoting equality, resistance to manipulation, and transparency. Her work underscores the importance of legitimate political processes in viable political solutions.
Beyond her focus on citizens’ assemblies, Flanigan is exploring systematic public input on complex decisions and how question formats in preference elicitation can influence outcomes. “I feel so fortunate to be able to explore these questions within the framework of both political science and EECS,” she says, highlighting the freedom she enjoys at MIT.
Finding a Home at MIT
Flanigan’s journey through varied disciplines finds a natural fit in MIT’s environment. “At MIT, I felt this sense of belonging from the very beginning – just as my thinking and problem-solving methods, which seemed strange to me in many situations, actually made me belong even more,” she reflects. Her experiences at MIT continue to affirm this sense of belonging.
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