Martin Hilbert

Martin Hilbert
Hilbert presenting at Puerto de Ideas
Born1977 (age 48–49)
Alma materUniversity of Southern California (PhD)
University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (Dr. rer.pol.)
Known forBig Data[1]
Information explosion
eLAC Action Plans.[2]
Scientific career
FieldsComputational Social Science, Information Theory, Complex Systems, Information Society
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Davis
Doctoral advisorsManuel Castells (2012)
Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider (2006)

Martin Hilbert (born in 1977) is a social scientist and a professor at the University of California, where he chairs the campus-wide emphasis on Computational Social Science.[3] His research examines the role of digital technologies, information systems, and data in society.

Hilbert academic work includes studies on the measurement and analysis of global information, including estimates of the world’s information capacity.[4] He has also contributed to policy-related initiatives on digital development, including regional agendas in Latin America and the Caribbean through United Nations–supported eLAC Action Plans. His research and public commentary have addressed data analytics, communication technologies, and their societal implications, including early discussions of data-driven political campaigning and the role of Cambridge Analytica prior to the wider public controversy.[5]

Career and research

Hilbert served as an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for approximately 15 years, where he worked on initiatives related to the development of the information society in the region, including contributions to the eLAC Action Plans.[6] These plans outline regional digital development agendas for Latin America and the Caribbean.[7][8]

His research focuses on the processes and impacts of digitalization and the use of data and algorithms in society.[9] His work has been published across multiple academic disciplines, including communication studies,[10] information science,[11] international development,[12] evolution and ecology,[13] technological forecasting,[14] complexity science,[15][16] network science,[17] economics,[18][19] physics,[20] psychology,[21] women's studies[22] and multidisciplinary science.[23]

In addition to his academic work, Hilbert has delivered keynote talks on topics related to digital technologies and society.

Consulting

Hilbert has provided advisory support on digital development to governments and organizations, particularly in Latin America.[24][25] His work has included collaboration with public and private sector entities on topics related to data and digital transformation.[26]

Teaching

Hilbert has developed and taught university-level courses, some of which are available as MOOCs on platforms such as Coursera.[27] These courses cover topics including digital technology and social change, computational social science methods, artificial intelligence, and social network analysis, and have attracted large enrollments globally. His methods course, University of California Computational Social Science, introduces the scientific method using computational tools and concepts from complexity science, and was developed as a UC-wide online course with contributions from faculty across all 10 campuses.[28][29][30][31]

Awards & Recognitions

Hilbert has received recognition for work in areas including visual communication and published interviews.[32][33] He has held a distinguished scholar position at the Library of Congress and has been associated with online teaching initiatives and course rankings.[34][35] He has also received awards for online teaching from the University of California Office of the President’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI).[36] He has been selected to serve on the Scholars Council of the U.S. Library of Congress for the 2026–2031 term.[37]

References

  1. ^ Hilbert, Martin; López, Priscila (2011). "The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information". Science. 332 (6025): 60–65. Bibcode:2011Sci...332...60H. doi:10.1126/science.1200970. PMID 21310967. S2CID 206531385.
  2. ^ eLAC Action Plans: A personal account; http://www.martinhilbert.net/elac-action-plans-a-personal-account
  3. ^ "Computational Social Science at UC Davis". css.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  4. ^ Hilbert M, López P (April 2011). "The world's technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information" (PDF). Science. 332 (6025): 60–5. Bibcode:2011Sci...332...60H. doi:10.1126/science.1200970. PMID 21310967. S2CID 206531385. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Journalism of Excellence Award". MartinHilbert.net. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Information and communications technologies (ICTs)". www.cepal.org. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  7. ^ "ELAC Action Plans: A personal account".
  8. ^ "eLAC Digital agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean".
  9. ^ Martin Hilbert (11 July 2023). DTSC: 2.4 What is Digitalization & Algorithmification?. Retrieved 12 July 2024 – via YouTube.
  10. ^ Hilbert, M., & Darmon, D. (2020). Largescale Communication Is More Complex and Unpredictable with Automated Bots. Journal of Communication, 70(5).
  11. ^ Hilbert, Martin; Thakur, Arti; Flores, Pablo M.; Zhang, Xiaoya; Bhan, Jee Young; Bernhard, Patrick; Ji, Feng (2024). "8–10% of algorithmic recommendations are 'bad', but… an exploratory risk-utility meta-analysis and its regulatory implications". International Journal of Information Management. 75 102743. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102743. ISSN 0268-4012.
  12. ^ Hilbert, Martin (2010). "When is Cheap, Cheap Enough to Bridge the Digital Divide? Modeling Income Related Structural Challenges of Technology Diffusion in Latin America". World Development. 38 (5): 756–770. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2009.11.019. ISSN 0305-750X.
  13. ^ Gillings, Michael R.; Hilbert, Martin; Kemp, Darrell J. (2016). "Information in the Biosphere: Biological and Digital Worlds". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 31 (3): 180–189. Bibcode:2016TEcoE..31..180G. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2015.12.013. ISSN 0169-5347. PMID 26777788.
  14. ^ Hilbert, Martin; Miles, Ian; Othmer, Julia (2009). "Foresight tools for participative policy-making in inter-governmental processes in developing countries: Lessons learned from the eLAC Policy Priorities Delphi". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 76 (7): 880–896. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2009.01.001. ISSN 0040-1625.
  15. ^ Hilbert, Martin (2014). "Scale-free power-laws as interaction between progress and diffusion". Complexity. 19 (4): 56–65. Bibcode:2014Cmplx..19d..56H. doi:10.1002/cplx.21485. ISSN 1076-2787.
  16. ^ Hilbert, Martin (2017). "Complementary Variety: When Can Cooperation in Uncertain Environments Outperform Competitive Selection?". Complexity. 2017: 1–15. doi:10.1155/2017/5052071. ISSN 1076-2787.
  17. ^ Hilbert, Martin; Oh, Poong; Monge, Peter (1 October 2016). "Evolution of what? A network approach for the detection of evolutionary forces". Social Networks. 47: 38–46. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2016.04.003. ISSN 0378-8733.
  18. ^ Hilbert, Martin (1 September 2016). "Formal definitions of information and knowledge and their role in growth through structural change". Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. Complexity and Economic Development. 38: 69–82. doi:10.1016/j.strueco.2016.03.004. ISSN 0954-349X.
  19. ^ Hilbert, Martin (2020). "Information Theory for Human and Social Processes". Entropy. 23 (1): 9. Bibcode:2020Entrp..23....9H. doi:10.3390/e23010009. ISSN 1099-4300. PMC 7822471. PMID 33374607.
  20. ^ Hilbert, Martin; Darmon, David (2020). "How Complexity and Uncertainty Grew with Algorithmic Trading". Entropy. 22 (5): 499. Bibcode:2020Entrp..22..499H. doi:10.3390/e22050499. ISSN 1099-4300. PMC 7516984. PMID 33286272.
  21. ^ Hilbert, Martin (2012). "Toward a synthesis of cognitive biases: How noisy information processing can bias human decision making". Psychological Bulletin. 138 (2): 211–237. doi:10.1037/a0025940. ISSN 1939-1455. PMID 22122235.
  22. ^ Hilbert, Martin (1 November 2011). "Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics". Women's Studies International Forum. 34 (6): 479–489. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.07.001. ISSN 0277-5395.
  23. ^ Hilbert, Martin; López, Priscila (2011). "The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information". Science. 332 (6025): 60–65. Bibcode:2011Sci...332...60H. doi:10.1126/science.1200970. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 21310967.
  24. ^ "Martin Hilbert, gurú del Big Data: "La democracia no está preparada para la era digital y está siendo destruida"". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  25. ^ "El gurú del 'big data': "Facebook sabe más de ti con 250 likes que tú mismo"". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 27 November 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  26. ^ "La Era de los Agentes de IA: el camino hasta aquí y el rumbo en juego". YouTube. 20 March 2025. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  27. ^ "Digital Technology and Social Change". Coursera. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  28. ^ "Computational Social Science". Coursera. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  29. ^ "Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics". Coursera. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  30. ^ "Social Network Analysis". Coursera. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  31. ^ "AI Agents: From Prompts to Multi-Agent Systems". Coursera. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  32. ^ "The Hidden Digital Divide". www.informationisbeautifulawards.com. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  33. ^ "Martin Hilbert, experto en redes digitales: Obama y Trump usaron el Big Data para lavar cerebros"; The Clinic (2017); Daniel Hopenhayn (winner of Chilean Journalism of Excellence award). https://www.theclinic.cl/2018/05/15/periodista-the-clinic-daniel-hopenhayn-gano-premio-periodismo-excelencia-la-uah-mejor-entrevista-escrita/
  34. ^ "Big Data and Its Impact on Democracy". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  35. ^ University of California Computational Social Science, Coursera Online Specialization, https://www.classcentral.com/report/review-ucdavis-comp-social-science/
  36. ^ "CV & bio". MartinHilbert.net. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  37. ^ "The Scholar Council at the John W. Kluge Center, U.S. Library of Congress". LoC. 17 March 2026. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
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