Jennifer Golbeck

Jennifer Golbeck is the Director of the Social Intelligence Lab and an Associate Professor in the College of Information Studies at UMD. She is a world leader in social media research and science communication. She began studying social media from the moment it emerged on the web a decade ago, and is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field. Her research has influenced industry, government and the military. She is a pioneer in the field of social data analytics, discovering people’s hidden attributes from their online behavior, and a leader in creating human-friendly security and privacy systems.

Her research focuses on analyzing and computing with social media. This includes building models of social relationships, particularly trust, as well as user preferences and attributes, and using the results to design and build systems that improve the way people interact with information online.

In addition to her work as a professor at UMD, she writes for top online news organizations, including Slate and The Atlantic, and appears frequently on NPR and commercial talk radio.

Education:

AB in Economics & SM in Computer Science, University of Chicago

Ph.D in Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park