Nick Obradovich is Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator at the
Max Planck Institute for Human Development in the Center for Humans and Machines. He previously worked as a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He holds a PhD from the University of California, San Diego and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. He is the Human-Environmental Systems Fellow at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and is a research affiliate at MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. Nick lives in Oregon, USA.
Nick’s research combines his interests in artificial intelligence, climate change, and human behavior with his affinity for data science and computational methods. His work regularly appears in top academic journals and in major media outlets.
One line of Nick’s research explores the intersection of
humans and machines. He has investigated the effects that generative algorithms might have on
emotions —
good and
bad — and has examined easing the study of
algorithmic output [
2]. He has studied
algorithmic bias [
2], the detection of
manipulated media, and the ways algorithms can enable the
study of culture. And he has reviewed the science of
machine behavior.
Nick’s climate research explores the human impacts of warming. He has uncovered climatic effects on mental health, mobility, mood [2], physical activity, and sleep [2] as well as daily governance, democratic turnover, and civil conflict. He has also studied climate-related political behaviors, attitudes, and adaptation of expectations as well as the use of social media data to assess disaster damage and flood incidence.