Our Team
Public Editor has been designed and built by a diverse team including journalists, science educators, sociologists, cognitive scientists, librarians, psychologists, software engineers, and even a Nobel Laureate.
Nicholas Brigham Adams, PhD (Director)
Nick Adams is the Founder & Chief Scientist of the Goodly Labs, and CEO of Thusly, inc, which provides Public Editor’s underlying TagWorks technology. Nick holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, where he also founded successful data science organizations like the Computational Text Analysis Working Group and Text Across Domains.
Saul Perlmutter, PhD (Co-Director)
Saul Perlmutter is a 2011 Nobel Laureate, sharing the prize in Physics for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe. He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Franklin W. and Karen Weber Dabby Chair, and a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Wendy Hui Kyong, PhD Chun (Collaborator)
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is Simon Fraser University's Canada 150 Research Chair in the School of Communication. An inter-disciplinarian as comfortable with Systems Design Engineering and English Literature, Wendy and her team are helping bring measures of ‘authenticity’ into the Public Editor credibility rating system.
Tony Vigorito, PhD
Tony Vigorito is Public Editor’s Director of Communications. He has written three critically-acclaimed novels and is working on a fourth. Tony holds a PhD in Sociology from The Ohio State University, is a Senior Lecturer at Sonoma State University, and is Director of Culture at Boca Code school.
Emlen Metz, PhD
Emlen Metz is a postdoctoral scholar who studies the psychology of epistemology: that is, how people form and revise beliefs and think about knowledge and uncertainty. She helped develop our question schemata and is currently developing tools to train new volunteers. She grew up in Berkeley, and is delighted to be back after a decade in Pennsylvania.
Scott Peterson
Scott Peterson is in the Arts & Humanities Division of the UC Berkeley Library where he is the Head of the Morrison and Graduate Services libraries. He is a member of the Computational Text Analysis Working Group in the D-Lab at UC Berkeley and works with scholars in the digital humanities. Scott has been involved with Public Editor in various roles since its inception.
Ewen Dai
Ewen Dai is the Monitoring and Systems Calibration team lead on the Public Editor project. Outside of Public Editor, she is studying Data Science & Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. She enjoys reading novels and listening to music in her free time.
Eric Wimsatt
Eric Wimsatt is the Algorithms team lead on the Public Editor project. He is a junior studying computer science at UC Berkeley focusing on designing software for people. In his free time he likes to train for triathlons and go on hikes.
James McKay
James McKay is a government contractor in Washington, DC. He has a background in systems development and architecture. He believes that measuring and publishing reliability metrics can alter society's consumption of "fake news".
Aditya Ranganathan
Aditya Ranganathan is an interdisciplinary thinker whose passion lies in connecting research with application. A PhD student in Applied Physics, Aditya studies collective behavior at Harvard University. Besides his academic pursuits, Aditya serves on the leadership committee of Public Editor.
Bryant Le
Bryant Le studies computer science at University of California, Berkeley with some industry experience from IBM, LinkedIn, and Microsoft, and he is currently developing the volunteer dashboard for the Public Editor project. In his free time, he likes to design and plate food.
Nancy Wang
Nancy Wang is a second year at the University of California, Berkeley studying Data Science and Economics. Nancy is very interested in participating in Public Editor’s effort to combat news media misinformation. In her free time, she enjoys watching sit-coms and hiking.
Deven Barth
Deven Barth is a contributor to the Data Analytics team for Public Editor. He's currently an undergraduate at UC Berkeley interested in learning about data science and its real world applications.
Andrew Chen
Andrew Chen is an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley passionate about computer science and its applications. He does web development as part of the software team.
Catharine Wu
Catharine Wu joined Public Editor on Jan. 2018, started with leading the scoring algorithm team. She then worked on the training curriculums and project operations. Catharine is a passionate scuba diver.
Yuchen Zhang
Yuchen Zhang is a member of the MASC sub-team on the Public Editor Project handling Answer Convergence and User Reputation Score. He majors in Computer Science and Data Science, and has a focus on Machine Learning.
Zehao Zhao
Zehao Zhao is a student at UC Berkeley who has contributed to the Public Editor project as a member of the software team. In his free time, Zehao likes to engage in activities such as esports and board games with his friends.
Shouzheng Zhang
Shouzheng Zhang is a student at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Statistics. She is an active member of the Data Science & Analytics Subteam, who is in charge of analyzing the difficulty level and correlations in each article.
Yvonne Zhou
Yvonne Zhou is a junior at UC Berkeley who is a member of the Data Analytics team. She is currently pursuing a major in data science.
Ju Sheen Kim
Ju Sheen is a senior at UC Berkeley on the Public Editor Data Team. He is interested in using data to help people make better informed decisions.
Theresa Chen
Theresa Chen is a sophomore studying computer science. She recently joined the Public Editor project as a member of the software development team.
Ruby Werman
Ruby Werman is a member of the Community team, helping to develop Public Editor's forum. She's a computer science major who's interested in design and tech for social good projects.
Akhil Sanka
Akhil Sanka is excited to help battle misinformation through the Algorithms team at Public Editor. He’s interested in photography, volleyball, and can binge a season of TV on a good day!
Andrew Flury
Andrew Flury is a member of the software team for Public Editor, and is a junior at UC Berkeley. When Andrew isn't coding, he can be found volunteering at Berkeley's thrift store, ReUSE, or playing ukulele on the Glade.
Sahil Mehta
Sahil Mehta is an undergraduate studying EECS and Business, contributing to the data analysis team at Public Editor. He is excited to leverage technology and critical thinking to combat misinformation in the media.