Mark Hansen

David and Helen Gurley Brown Professor of Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Summary
Mark Hansen is an accomplished professor, artist, and statistician with nearly three decades of experience in data analysis, art, and technology. Dr. Hansen currently holds the David and Helen Gurley Brown Professor of Journalism position at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches advanced data analysis and computational journalism. He was also the inaugural director of the east coast branch of the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Prior to joining Columbia, Hansen was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories and a professor at UCLA in the Department of Statistics, Department of Design Media Arts, and the Department of Electrical Engineering. 
Dr. Hansen's work in data science, statistics, and computer science has led to eight patents and over 60 published papers. He is internationally recognized as an expert in data visualization and presentation, which he showcases in his active art practice with Ben Rubin, Jer Thorp, and The Office for Creative Research. Their work has been exhibited at the world's most prestigious institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the London Science Museum, and the Cartier Foundation in Paris.
In terms of journalism, Hansen has been a visiting researcher at the New York Times R&D Lab, a consultant with HBO Sports, and a late-career intern at the Marshall Project. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Responsive Politics and serves on the Council for the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Hansen's Computational Journalism course at Columbia was integral to the New York Times' article, The Follower Factory, which exposed the bot economy behind the sale of fake followers on Twitter. This article won the 2019 Polk Award for National Reporting and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. 
Overall, Hansen's extensive experience in academia, data science, art, and journalism make him a sought-after expert in his field. He continues to push the boundaries of data visualization and analysis while also teaching the next generation of journalists at Columbia.