Martin Hilbert

Martin Hilbert (born in 1977) is a social scientist who is a professor at the University of California where he chairs the campus-wide emphasis on Computational Social Science.^[3] He studies societal digitalization. His work is recognized in academia for the first study that assessed how much information there is in the world;^[4] in public policy for having designed the first digital action plan with the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations (eLAC Action Plans); and in the popular media for having alerted about the intervention of Cambridge Analytica a year before the scandal broke.^[5]

Martin Hilbert
Hilbert presenting at Puerto de Ideas
Born	1977 (age 47–48)
Alma mater	University of Southern California (PhD) University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (Dr. rer.pol.)
Known for	Big Data[1] Information explosion eLAC Action Plans.[2]
Scientific career
Fields	Computational Social Science, Information Theory, Complex Systems, Information Society
Institutions	University of California, Davis
Doctoral advisors	Manuel Castells (2012) Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider (2006)

Career and research

Hilbert served as Economic Affairs Officer of the United Nations Secretariat for 15 years (UN ECLAC), where he created the Information Society Program for Latin America and the Caribbean^[6] He conceptualized the design of the eLAC Action Plans, which has led to six consecutive generations of digital development agendas for Latin America and the Caribbean (2005–2025).^[7]

Hilbert studies the conditions and effects of digitalization (information & communication) and algorithmification (knowledge)^[8] on human processes and societal dynamics. His research has found audiences in communication science,^[9] information science,^[10] international development,^[11] evolution and ecology,^[12] technological forecasting,^[13] complexity science,^[14][15] network science,^[16] economics,^[17][18] physics,^[19] psychology,^[20] women's studies^[21] and multidisciplinary science.^[22]

Consulting

Hilbert has provided technical assistance in the field of digital development to more than 20 countries and contributed to publicly traded companies as digital strategist. He has consulted with governments and companies, especially in Latin America, which has earned him media-titles like “guru of big data”.^[23][24]

Teaching

Hilbert's university courses are available as MOOCs on Coursera. His teachings on "Digital Technology & Social Change" consists of an introduction to the digital age, being informed by his hands-on experience at the United Nations and his regular consultancy work.^[25] His methods course is an introduction to the scientific method, informed by complexity science, executed with computational tools and called “University of California Computational Social Science”. It was the first UC-wide online course that involves faculty members from all 10 UC campuses (17 different lecturers).^[26]

Awards & Recognitions

Hilbert's numerous peer recognitions span from awards for visual infographics,^[27] and written interviews,^[28] to an endowed chair position at the Library of Congress,^[29] and ranked at the 'Top-100 Best Online Courses of ALL TIMES,^[30] as well as two awards for online teaching from the University of California Office of the President's Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI).^[31]