Bjorn Ross

Bjorn Ross is a Lecturer in Computational Social Science at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. He is affiliated with the Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation and actively contributes to the Computational Social Science research area. He serves as Director of the SMASH research group and is part of the management team for the Centre for Doctoral Training in Natural Language Processing (CDT in NLP).

Education:

• PhD, 2019, University of Duisburg-Essen
• MSc in Computer Science, 2016, University of Münster
• Exchange year, 2014–2015, University of Strasbourg
• BSc in Information Systems, 2013, University of Münster

His research focuses on computational methods for analyzing social media, particularly using natural language processing, social network analysis, and agent-based modeling. Key interests include misinformation, hate speech, social bots, and the ethical implications of automated systems. He emphasizes fairness, bias, and data ethics in AI applications.

His recent publications span topics such as queerphobic bias in sentiment analysis, explainable hate speech detection, temporal generalizability in misinformation models, and cross-lingual bias amplification. These works appear in leading venues including ACL, ICWSM, Social Science Computer Review, and Big Data & Society, reflecting a strong interdisciplinary focus bridging computer science, social science, and ethics.

Scientific Awards:

• Best Paper Award, Electronic Government track, HICSS 2018

Ross supervises multiple PhD students and welcomes new applicants. He has also contributed to software tools and web-based platforms for argument analysis and counterspeech. He is an Associate Editor for Business & Information Systems Engineering and a member of AIS, ACL, and ACM. His teaching includes courses on Text Technologies for Data Science and digital persuasion.

He leads the SMASH group, which focuses on social media analytics and societal challenges, and collaborates extensively within the CDT in NLP and the Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation.