Yash Kanoria, assistant professor of Decision, Risk, and Operations at Columbia Business School, was recently awarded a five-year, $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the design of matching markets. “I am truly honored to receive the CAREER grant and to join the remarkable group of faculty who have been recognized by this award,” says Kanoria. “The research funded by this grant will contribute to US and global markets by designing improved, smart marketplaces that will bolster the sharing economy.” The research funded by the grant will study the design of sharing economy marketplaces including labor (e.g., Upwork), transportation (e.g., Uber), accommodation (e.g., Airbnb), dating (e.g., Tinder), and school admissions (e.g., engineering college admissions in India). The approach proposed is interdisciplinary, drawing upon ideas from operations management, engineering and economics. As an illustrative example, Kanoria notes that in two-sided matching platforms, such as online dating apps, the platform should force the more selective side of the market to reach out first to allow the agents on the less selective side to exercise more choice. “For example, the dating app Bumble requires the woman to send the first message. Though the founder promotes the app as feminist, our research suggests that this design choice actually benefits men significantly more, since they no longer face very likely rejection and can even afford to be somewhat selective, at a small cost to women,” he says. There is a rich history of CAREER grant award winners at Columbia Business School. Previous faculty winners of this grant include Professors Carri Chan (2014), Emi Nakamura (2011), Assaf Zeevi (2005), Sheena Iyengar (2001), and Fangruo Chen (1997).  Faculty winners of the Presidential Young Investigator Award, a predecessor of the CAREER, include Paul Glasserman (1994) and Laurie Hodrick (1991). The highly competitive CAREER grant award program provides financial support to the research initiatives of faculty who are in the early stages of their careers and, according to the NSF,  “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.” The NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 that funds research and education in science and engineering through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. To learn more about the cutting-edge research being conducted at Columbia Business School, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu. ### About Columbia Business School Columbia Business School is the only world-class, Ivy League business school that delivers a learning experience where academic excellence meets with real-time exposure to the pulse of global business. Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the School’s transformative curriculum bridges academic theory with unparalleled exposure to real-world business practice, equipping students with an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to recognize, capture, and create opportunity in any business environment. The thought leadership of the School’s faculty and staff members, combined with the accomplishments of its distinguished alumni and position at the center of global business, means that the School’s efforts have an immediate, measurable impact on the forces shaping business every day. To learn more about Columbia Business School’s position at the very center of business, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu.