Jacob Beal, Science Commons Fellow
Started: August 2008
Jacob Beal is a researcher working on engineered self-organization: the science of obtaining predictable aggregate behavior from collections of unreliable devices with local and non-linear interactions. His focus in this area is on problems of system integration for human-level intelligence and on problems of modelling and control for spatially-distributed networks like sensor networks, robotic swarms, and cells during morphogenesis. Dr. Beal, who has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, is completing a postdoctoral position at MIT and beginning as a Scientist at BBN Technologies in Fall, 2008.

back to people

Jesse Dylan, Science Commons Fellow
Started: April 2009
Director Jesse Dylan has been behind some of the most successful campaigns in commercial television, print, and interactive advertising. His most recent projects include the Emmy Award winning video YES WE CAN SONG, inspired by Barack Obama. Additionally, he is creating media projects for a diverse group of organizations including (RED), the campaign to fight AIDS in Africa, and KIVA a non-profit micro-lending organization dedicated to alleviating poverty. Current projects also include a short promotional film with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on reconciliation, and a short film exploring innovation at Harvard Medical School.

Jesse’s non-profit work includes his organization Lybba, a website that aims to be the world’s resource for healing by providing an evidenced-based platform for people to find clear, comprehensive and easily accessible information regarding health.

back to people

Puneet Kishor, Science Commons Fellow
Started: April 2009
As a Science Commons Fellow, Puneet intends to evangelize open access to geospatial data, science and technology. His interest in open access stems from his stint as a Science Policy Fellow at the National Academies, and as an elected Charter member of the Open Source GeoSpatial Foundation. Puneet has worked as an engineer in a small New Delhi NGO, internationally as a GIS specialist at the World Bank in Washington DC, and at a private GIS consulting firm in Madison. Puneet has an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and a Masters from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is currently enrolled in a doctoral program researching on the nexus of public policy, geospatial information and entrepreneurship. He is also working at the UW-Madison Forestry Department helping build a completely open web-based application for modeling biome-level carbon sequestration.

back to people

Jordan Mendelson, Science Commons Fellow
Started: June 2009
Jordan is best known for building the Napster backend software including real-time search and chat and scaling it up to 80 million users. He has founded multiple companies, the most recent one was SNOCAP. It was a real-time copyright clearinghouse that allowed P2P systems to identify content and retrieve licensing information. SNOCAP became the primary MySpace storefront for music. As a Science Commons Fellow, Jordan is working on a system to transition scientific publications from isolated islands of text to highly interconnected collaborative pages that can be discussed, annotated, organized and edited.

back to people

Neeru Paharia, Science Commons Fellow
Started: December 2008
Neeru is currently a doctoral candidate at Harvard Business School. Neeru researches consumer behavior, ethics, and decision-making. Neeru is also the founder and director of the AcaWiki project. AcaWiki collects and hosts summaries of academic papers to improve physical, and intellectual access to cutting-edge research.

back to people

Jon Phillips, Business Development and Community Fellow
Started: September 2005
Jon Phillips is an artist and developer contributing to society and building meaningful relationships. In 2002 he helped launch the open source drawing tool, Inkscape, founded the Open Clip Art Library, built Creative Commons‘ community and business development strategies from 2005 until 2008 and is growing the media company Fabricatorz with Cantocore Art Exhibitions, Laoban Open Soundsystems in Beijing, and recently assisting with an upcoming re-launch of Status.Net (Identi.ca).

back to people

Victoria Stodden, Science Commons Fellow
Started: November 2008

Victoria is a fellow with the Internet and Democracy Project at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School. She obtained a Master’s in Legal Studies in 2007 from Stanford Law School where she worked with Larry Lessig to create a new license for computational research. Her current research includes understanding how new technologies and open source standards affect societal decision-making and welfare. Victoria completed her PhD in statistics at Stanford University in 2006 with advisor David Donoho, specializing in regression techniques for cases where there are many more variables than observations. She also has a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia and the University of Ottawa respectively.

back to people

Interns

Aurelia Schultz, Google Policy Fellow
Started: June 2009
Aurelia recently graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School where she focused on international intellectual property. Her main interests are in copyright and African IP. She has lived in Zambia and Nigeria and has a bachelors degree in Religious Studies from a school in Wisconsin of which you’ve probably never heard (Carroll College). When not frolicking in the wonderful world of IP, she can be found sewing, buying shoes or re-reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time.
back to people