James Sappenfield is a doctoral candidate at Harvard Business School in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) unit. His current projects focus on two areas. The first area considers how evaluation processes in scientific and technological funding settings influence the direction of scientific  and technological innovation. One example project explores how the structure of expert evaluators' knowledge competencies influences their preference for or against highly novel innovations in evaluation settings. Follow-on work explores how diversity in the composition of an evaluation group's expert knowledge influences their aggregated preferences for novel ideas. The second area of his work is focused on the value of innovative human capital for organizations and firms, and how governmental policies surrounding human capital can influence firm-level innovation outcomes. More broadly, his research interests lie in the economics of innovation and knowledge management. Prior to attending HBS, he previously worked as a research assistant at MIT - Sloan School of Management, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Boston University, and taught high school mathematics with Dallas ISD as a member of Teach For America. He holds a BA in Political Science and a BS in Business Administration, both from Boston University.