Microsoft opens new research lab in Cambridge, Mass.

Microsoft just keeps coming back to Cambridge, Mass. Last year, Harvard dropout Bill Gates returned to Harvard for an honorary degree (read his commencement speech ). Today, Microsoft Research announced plans to open its sixth research lab and Cambridge will be the location (Microsoft’s first research center on the East Coast). The lab will unite social scientists with computer scientists.

Microsoft researcher Jennifer Tour Chayes (left) has been appointed the managing director of the new lab.

Here’s a Q&A on Microsoft Research’s site with her and her husband, Christian Borgs, who will be the lab’s deputy managing director.