Jo Pierson - Biography#

Jo Pierson, Ph.D, is Full Professor of Responsible Digitalisation at Hasselt University (Hasselt, Belgium) and Professor of Media and Communication Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences & Solvay Business School at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium). He is head of the Faculty School of Social Sciences and staff member of the research group R4D (Research for Digitalisation, Diversity & Democracy) at UHasselt. He is also part of the research centre imec-SMIT (Studies on Media, Innovation and Technology) at VUB. His main research expertise is in media and communication studies, science and technology studies (STS), data privacy, public values in data-driven technologies, digital platforms, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and user innovation. On these issues he has published extensively and participated in over 75 national and international fundamental and applied research projects, as promotor, co-promotor, and principal investigator. He has been an expert for several government initiatives on European, Belgian and Flemish level regarding policy, design and usage of digital technologies. He is also member of the Scholarly Review Committee and Legal Committee of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).