Called to serve: Tech, research, and positive impact

Lab Director Chris White has worked on research challenges with real world implications—from new approaches to wartime data analysis to tools for combating human trafficking. He talks to program manager Weishung Liu about the influences that led to the work and more. The post Called to serve: Tech, research, and…

Weishung Liu, Chris WhiteOctober 20, 2026 29 min readOriginal

In the summer of 2010, postdoc Chris White worked with a multidisciplinary team at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to determine if a new approach to data analysis could prevent violence and protect troops during the war in Afghanistan. At the conclusion of the program, the agency asked White to prove the value of his work—on the ground.

In this episode, Principal Technical Program Manager Weishung Liu talks with White, director of Catalyst Lab at Microsoft Research, about his unexpected break from academic research to help lead advanced tech operations in Afghanistan and his later decision to again work on tech with immediate, real-world implications: dark-web search tools used to help combat human trafficking. Liu and White explore the influences that led to these experiences plus the important role of problem selection in innovation and remaining hopeful after seeing the darkest parts of humanity.