People

Michelle Abigan

MSc Student

Michelle is an MSc student in Social Data Science. She holds a BSc in Economics and Business Analytics. Prior to her postgraduate studies, she gained experiences in online marketplaces and consulting.

Tom Bennett

MSc Student

Thomas has studied Data Science, Finance, Economics, and Commercial Law at the University of Sydney. He is interested in using big data and designing data system flows to improve social outcomes.

Danit Berger Zalmanson

MSc Student

Danit's research focuses on developing an NLP algorithm to understand international relations comprehensively. She has an extensive background in Tech and the Israeli government.

Asanilta Fahda

MSc Student

Asanilta Fahda holds a BSc in Informatics/Computer Science and worked for 5 years as a software engineer in several international companies ranging from e-commerce, data analytics, to FP&A software. She joined the OII as a Jardine Scholar.

Ariana Gamarra

MSc Student

Ariana is interested in the social impact of technology. She previously worked as a product consultant for an asset management firm and holds a BA in Information Science and Sociology from Cornell University.

Milko Hristov

MSc Student

Milko researches the gig economy and its potential as a vehicle for economic development. He is a sustainable business owner who majored in economics at the University of Warwick.

Karolina Korgul

MSc Student

Karolina holds a BA from the University of Warsaw, in Economics, Computer Science, and Data Science. She is particularly passionate about customer behaviour, education, psychonometrics, state digitalisation, and trust and safety in digital products.

Errin Tijssens

MSc Student

Errin holds an MSc in Global Business & Sustainability from Erasmus University and studied Governance, Economics and Development during his Bachelor’s. Prior to joining the OII, he worked for a multinational corporation in the FMCG industry.

Ben Bariach

MSc Student

Ben is a part-time MSc student at the OII with an interest in AI ethics. He currently works on social impact partnerships at Google, and has previously worked on various tech policy topics at Google's Public Policy and Legal teams.

Adam Bein

MSc Student

Adam is a corporate lawyer alongside his part-time studies at the OII. His academic pastimes include digital ethics, data protection and cultural heritage protection. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Birmingham.

Ingrid Epure

MSc Student

Ingrid has more than a decade of experience as a software engineer and has worked on high-scale systems such as advertising platforms and cloud computing. She is interested in ways of determining social networks' impact on society.

Silja Erholtz

MSc Student

Silja is a part-time MSc in Social Science of the Internet student and works in UX design. She holds degrees in social services and early childhood education from Finland and fine art from India.

Fiona Knäussel

MSc Student

Alongside her part-time MSc at the OII, Fiona works as a Research Associate for peace data applications and data ethics during violent conflict. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Edinburgh.

Pete Marcus

MSc Student

Pete is interested in contemporary policy and regulatory approaches to the impact of technology, especially in the UK, EU, US and China. He holds an MA in English from the University of Cambridge.

Sara Minaeian

MSc Student

Sara Minaeian is interested in the intersection of data ethics, AI and quantum computing. Prior to joining OII, Sara was Chief of Staff in the Government of Canada.

Yolanda Mlonzi

MSc Student

Yolanda holds a BA (Hons) Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is passionate about the positive impact having access to technology and the internet could be for development, especially in regions like Africa.

Temilorun Olanipekun

MSc Student

Temilorun is a research and business professional working in the digital technology space, and has professional experience working across four tech sectors: civic-tech, Proptech, Edtech, and Blockchain/Web3.

Jey Ou

MSc Student

Jey holds a BSc in Psychology from University College London. She is interested in digital propaganda and its influence on political behaviour & radicalisation. She previously worked at a polling company.

Hannah Perry

MSc Student

Hannah is a researcher, educator and Shirley Scholar focusing on education policy and practice to support resilience to misinformation. She has a Classics MA Cantab, Diaspora Studies SOAS MA and PGCE.

Henry Portman

MSc Student

Henry joins the OII as a part-time student while working in the field of machine learning. His research interests relate to natural language processing (NLP) and interpretability in AI.

Divya Siddarth

MSc Student

Divya is the co-founder of the Collective Intelligence Project, which advances collective intelligence capabilities for the effective governance of transformative technologies.

Jack Van Cooten

MSc Student

Research Team Manager at Consultancy, Oliver Wyman. Previously Digital Research at OW and African Bank, Ecobank. Also worked in the Humanitarian sector (Save the Children and UN). For over a decade, Jack has run music events under Banana Hill.

Samantha Washington Wilcke

MSc Student

Boxi Wu

MSc Student

Boxi Wu works in Google DeepMind's Ethics & Society team alongside their part-time studies in the MSc in Social Science.

Zijian Ye

MSc Student

Zijian is a graduate of Nanjing University and the University of Pennsylvania. An educational start-up founder and independent researcher, Zijian is interested in technology-enhanced social control, digital propaganda, and recommender algorithms.

Xuan Zhu

MSc Student

Xuan has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto. She is interested in the intersection of business, technology and policy and impactful interdisciplinary projects advocating emerging technologies’ use for good social targeting.

Roland Chen

MSc Student

Roland is interested in digital culture. Specifically, in the aesthetic experience in light of emerging technologies. He also hopes to explore creative forms of scholarship.