This fall, the Lally School of Management is proud to welcome Dr. Jason Du, a researcher and educator whose work bridges creators, content, and consumers. Holding a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Du joins the Lally School as an assistant professor with research interests that blend creativity, culture, and computation.
From analyzing how music evolves through audience feedback to exploring what underlies creators’ content decisions, Dr. Du offers a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective on business research and education.
Crossing Boundaries: Where Art Meets Science
Dr. Du’s intellectual journey has been anything but linear. Growing up with a deep appreciation for music, film, and the arts, he also developed a strong interest in economics, behavioral science, and emerging technologies. Rather than choosing a single path, he chose to explore them all.
“I’ve always had broad interests, economics, art, and technology,” he said. “I realized academia is one of the few places where you can combine them creatively.”
His research focuses on how creators, particularly musicians, adapt and learn from market responses to their work. Drawing on large-scale data, Dr. Du investigates how artists make decisions based on what performs well with audiences. His work reveals the factors that underlie creation decisions and sheds light on how platforms could potentially support content creators in making more informed choices.
Finding Home: Lally, a Place to Grow and Collaborate
When considering the next step in his academic career, Dr. Du was drawn to Lally’s collaborative and innovative environment.
“Everyone I met during my visit was incredibly welcoming. I was especially excited about the behavioral research lab, which I see as a powerful resource to integrate into my research,” he said. This experience reinforced his enthusiasm for collaborating with faculty in Lally’s research community.
He also noted the intellectual connection between RPI and MIT as a motivating factor: “There’s a shared spirit of innovation here,” he added. “RPI encourages the kind of interdisciplinary work that inspires me.”
Inside the Classroom: Logic, First Principles, and Interdisciplinary Learning
As an educator, Dr. Du is focused on helping students become both critical and creative thinkers. His teaching emphasizes not just technical mastery, but the thinking frameworks that support deeper understanding and creativity. To reinforce this mindset, he plans to incorporate demonstrations to show how to break down problems logically, approach ideas from interdisciplinary perspectives, and identify the first principles at the core of complex concepts.
“I want to facilitate an environment where students are encouraged to ask ‘silly’ questions,” he shared. “Even the most complex knowledge is built on simple logical steps. It’s often those seemingly ‘silly’ questions —the ones people are embarrassed to ask or that others overlook —that actually build the foundation for understanding. Once you have that solid base, creativity just comes naturally.”
Outside the Classroom: A Creative Mind at Work
Dr. Du is a thinker even in motion. He often finds inspiration while walking, waiting, and wandering. A lifelong music lover, he enjoys writing lyrics and poetry in his spare time as a way to capture thoughts and emotions.
When asked how he hopes students see him, Dr. Du answered: “I hope they see me as a ‘sample’—not a model to follow. A sample offers information and inspiration, but it’s also meant to be questioned, remixed, and reimagined. Students already encounter many samples in their lives, which they can draw on to creatively compose their own way forward. If I could be a sample that helps students see the world a little differently, that would mean I had added something meaningful.”
Welcome to Lally, Dr. Du. We’re thrilled to have you on the team.