Natasha Dow Schüll is a cultural anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and associate professor at MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society. She recently completed a book based on extended research in Las Vegas among compulsive gamblers and the designers of the slot machines they play. ADDICTION BY DESIGN: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, will be published by Princeton University Press in the Spring of 2012. Her documentary film, BUFFET: All You Can Eat Las Vegas, has screened multiple times on PBS and appeared in numerous film festivals.

Schüll graduated Summa Cum Laude from UC Berkeley’s Department of Anthropology in 1993, later returning to receive her PhD in 2003. As a graduate student she was the recipient of fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Schüll held postdoctoral positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and as a fellow at NYU’s International Center for Advanced Studies. She joined MIT’s department of Science, Technology, and Society in Fall 2007.