Donald MacKenzie
I'm a sociologist of science and technology, and my research aims to throw new light on their role in shaping the modern world. I work on topics such as how financial-market participants use mathematical models, how nuclear weapons systems are designed, and how those involved try to produce high-confidence knowledge of the safety and security of computer systems.
Currently, I'm researching two topics: automated 'high-frequency trading' (HFT project), and AdTech, the technical/economic systems of online advertising (AdTech project).
My book on HFT, Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial Markets (also available as audiobook), was published by Princeton University Press in May; read an early review by Diane Coyle.
Previous books include Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (MIT Press, 1990); An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets (MIT Press, 2006); and Chains of Finance: How Investment Management is Shaped (Oxford University Press, 2017), jointly written with Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Philip Grant, Iain Hardie and Ekaterina Svetlova.
Source: The University of Edinburgh
