Featured Scientist: Judd Antin

He was once a chef, singer, and writer. Recently, he made Technology Review's prestigious list of Top 35 Innovators Under 35. Research Scientist Judd Antin's enthusiasm for his work and life is apparent – his interests span many fields, across multiple disciplines, over the course of a relatively short amount of time.

Antin currently works with the Internet Experiences group at Yahoo! Labs under Elizabeth Churchill. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and spent his childhood singing. He was part of the church choir and studied music in school, but he was also interested in writing and contemplated journalism as a college major. But he decided against it because of his increasing interest in the social sciences.

"I've always had a passion for liberal arts, and I had a great mentor at Johns Hopkins University in (Anthropology) Professor Felicity Northcott," said Antin, leading him to his decision to study socio-cultural anthropology as an undergrad. He graduated Johns Hopkins University in 2001 with honors.

While most graduates seek some form of adventure after college like backpacking through Europe, Antin decided to go to cooking school. He enrolled in the French Culinary Institute in New York. "That was my adventure," he said. After the six-month course ended in late 2001, he left the 9/11-affected city, moved back to Baltimore, and worked as a chef at a restaurant. He decided it wasn't his thing, so he went to graduate school at the University of Maryland College Park to study applied anthropology. He also met his wife (and fellow anthropologist), Tamar.

Antin is a self-described techno-geek. He has always been the AV and IT guy rolled up into one. "I was always dialing BBS (bulletin board systems) in the early 90's, racking up huge phone bills," he said, explaining that he was "that guy." He wanted to combine his interests in computer science, social science, and information science after graduate school and found the intersection of these fields at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information for a second master's degree and his PhD. There, he met Social Psychologist Coye Cheshire, who became a great mentor and collaborator of Antin's for years to come.

While at Berkeley, Antin started Mycroft, a start-up that used flash widgets to replace banner ads with Mechanical Turk-like jobs and used non-monetary incentives to motivate users. During this time, Antin grew increasingly interested in social psychology as it applied to users on the Internet. A New York Times article entitled "King Algorithm, An Oracle Part Man Part Machine" hit a nerve with Antin "because people don't work for free, they just aren't getting paid," he said. User attention doesn't just equate to page views, according to Antin. "It's a deeper level of understanding – you have to look at what social status, reputation, altruism, trust, privacy, and other attitudes really mean to users," said Antin. "And then you design social rewards that work with those attitudes. That's how you design engaging experiences."

Antin was introduced to Elizabeth Churchill by Cheshire in 2008. They hit it off and Antin spent the summer as a doctoral intern with Yahoo! Labs. He stayed in touch with Churchill after his internship ended and when he graduated with his PhD from Berkeley, he joined Yahoo! Labs as a Research Scientist with the Internet Experiences group. "If you're interested in social, Yahoo! is the place to be with its scale and diversity of communities and properties – this doesn't exist elsewhere," said Antin when asked why he joined Yahoo! Labs.

At Yahoo!, he is focused on user-generated content, social media, and crowd-sourcing. His work centers around gamification and the use of game dynamics to engage and motivate users.

"The reason I care so much about motivation and incentives is because I really believe that if we can foster deep, long-term motivation and social connection, the Internet can be a tool for world-changing stuff," said Antin. "I don't think we're all the way there yet, but I'm inspired by the idea of it."

These days, Antin is enjoying his role as a new dad to 8-week-old son, Rye. He still enjoys cooking and is determined to master the art of barbecuing because of his wife's Texan origins.