Vanessa
Bohns
was
attracted
to
Waterloo
Engineering
by
its
unique
management
sciences
department.
“I
thought
it
was
amazing
that
there
was
a
department
in
engineering
that
is
so
interdisciplinary
and
connected
to
the
people-side
of
getting
out
your
ideas,”
says
the
new
management
sciences
professor.
Bohns,
who
has
a
PhD
in
psychology
from
Columbia
University,
joined
Waterloo
Engineering
in
July
2011
after
spending
three
years
as
a
faculty
member
at
University
of
Toronto’s
Rotman
School
of
Management.
Among
her
research
interests
are
organizational
behaviour,
social
influence
and
perspective-taking.
A
paper
she
wrote
with
Tory
Higgins
of
Columbia
University
on
personalities
within
task-oriented
teams
is
featured
this
month
in
Social
Cognition,
the
official
journal
of
the
International
Social
Cognition
Network.
Bohns
found
that
while
people
are
often
happier
partnering
on
a
project
with
someone
who
is
similar,
it
often
doesn’t
result
in
fresh
ideas.
“Teams
that
are
able
to
capitalize
on
having
members
with
diverse
strategies
for
getting
things
done
find
ways
to
‘divide
and
conquer’
the
work
so
that
each
individual
has
his
or
her
own
independent
role
in
the
task
and
it
is
a
role
he
or
she
enjoys.”
Bohns
is
spending
the
fall
2011
term
doing
research.
Next
year
she
will
make
use
of
her
behavioural
research
background
when
she
beings
teaching
the
research
methods
course
for
management
sciences
graduate
students
and
the
organizational
behaviour
course
for
the
department’s
undergraduate
students.
“One
thing
I
love
about
behavioural
research
is
that
people
tend
to
have
a
lot
of
their
own
intuitions
about
the
phenomena
I
study,”
she
says.
“I’m
especially
excited
to
hear
the
intuitions
of
engineering
students
who
will
be
able
to
relate
these
concepts
to
their
own
experiences
in
their
co-op
terms
and
class
projects.”
Professor, Management Sciences