Jen Golbeck


Jennifer Golbeck is a computer scientist. She currently is a Professor at the College of Information Studies, an affiliate professor in the Computer Science Department, and an affiliate professor in the Journalism Department, all at the University of Maryland, College Park. Golbeck was director of the University of Maryland Human–Computer Interaction Lab from 2011 to 2014.

Education

Jennifer Golbeck completed her Doctor of Philosophy in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park. She also earned an SM and SB in Computer Science and an AB in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Research

Jennifer Golbeck is known for her work on computational social network analysis. She developed methods for inferring information about relationships and people in social networks. Her models for computing trust between people in social networks are among the first in the field. Social trust was for used in early research on trust-based recommender systems. She was a program co-chair of ACM RecSys 2015.
Golbeck has received attention for her work on computing personality traits and political preferences of individuals based on their social network profiles. Her presentation at TEDxMidatlantic, discussing the need for new methods of educating users about how to protect their personal data, was selected as one of TED's 2014 Year in Ideas talks. She presented at TEDxGeorgetown, about pets on the internet.

Media and publications

Golbeck is a contributor to Slate and a guest host on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, a talk show on Washington, DC's NPR affiliate, WAMU.

Books

Golbeck splits her time between Silver Spring, Maryland and the Florida Keys.

Social Media

Golbeck is also a prominent social media figure on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Her account The Golden Ratio which features images and videos of her golden retrievers has over 105,000 followers. Golbeck's current dogs are Venkman, Hopper, Swizzle, Guacamole, Chief Brody and Saint Patrick. Maggie, Jasmine, Riley, and Queso were dogs owned by Golbeck and featured prominently on The Golden Ratio accounts that have since passed away. Also featured on the accounts are dogs Golbeck fosters along with her adopted dogs. Golbeck also manages various other social media accounts, such as jen runs with dogs, which highlights her experiences as an ultramarathon runner. Podcasts produced by Golbeck include The Golden Ratio Podcast, Murders in Paradise, and Runs With Dogs.