Magdalene College Cambridge

Professor Gina Neff

Professor Gina Neff is a Senior Research Fellow at Magdalene College.

Professor Gina Neff is the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge. Her books include Venture Labor (MIT Press 2012), Self-Tracking (MIT Press 2016) and Human-Centered Data Science (MIT Press 2022).

Her research focuses on the effects of the rapid expansion of our digital information environment on workers and workplaces and in our everyday lives. Professor Neff holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University and advises international organisations including UNESCO, the OECD and the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. She leads strategy Responsible AI UK, a £30 million investment in ensuring the research and innovation community delivers on responsible AI. She also co-directs the ESRC’s Digital Good Network. Professor Neff serves on the board of directors for the Social Science Research Council, is a Strategic Advisory Network member of the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, and chairs the board for the social media start up, Bright.

Her academic research has won both engineering and social sciences awards. Professor Neff led the team that won the 2021 Webby for the best educational website on the Internet, for the A to Z of AI, which has reached over 1 million people in 17 different languages.

Research Interest

  • Responsible Innovation
  • Work & Organisations
  • Digital Technologies, Data & Society

Qualifications

  • 2004 Columbia University, Sociology, Ph.D.
  • 2002 Columbia University, Sociology, M.Phil.
  • 2001 The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Sociology, M.Phil.
  • 1993 Columbia College, Columbia University, A.B., Economics and Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures

Career/Research Highlights

  • UKRI RAI-UK, £30M, Head of Strategy and co-I. Connect UK Responsible AI ecosystem through strategic coordination among UKRI and related investments. 2023-2028 (0.4FTE)
  • HORIZON AI4TRUST, €6.4M, Lead on £425K work package. Develop a commercially viable early detection dashboard for mis/disinformation for policymakers and journalists. Responsible for informing the human-centered and policy-relevant design for an ambitious human-AI system. 2023-2026 (0.1FTE)
  • ESRC Digital Good Network, £4M, co-I & Associate Director. Create a UK-wide network for research on the digital good. Responsible for designing sustainability into research and practice for the network. 2022-2027 (0.15FTE)
  • Webby Award, Best Educational Website 2021, A-Z of AI https://atozofai.withgoogle.com/
  • British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, 2019
  • University of Oxford Social Science Division Teaching Excellence Award, 2019, for doctoral supervision
  • American Sociology Association CITASA Book Award for Venture Labor, co-winner 2013

Professional Affiliations

  • Commissions of Public Trust
  • Social Science Research Council, Board of Directors, 2022–Present
  • UK-US Steering Committee, “Researcher Access to Data: Changes and Challenges,” Royal Society & US National Academies of Science and Medicine, 2023
  • UK Economic & Social Research Council Strategy Advisory Network Member, 2021–Present

Selected Publications

Aragon, Cecilia, Shion Guha, Maria Kogan, Michael Muller and Gina Neff. 2022. Human-Centered Data Science: An Introduction. MIT Press, 2022.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543217/human-centered-data-science/

Clementine Collett, Livia Gouvea Gomes and Gina Neff. The Effects of AI on the Working Lives of Women. UNESCO Publishing, 2022.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380861

Blake M. Dicosola III and Gina Neff. Nudging Behavior Change: Using In-Group & Out-Group Social Comparisons to Encourage Healthier Choices. CHI’22.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3502088

Freeman, Jaimie L. and Gina Neff. “The Challenge of Repurposed Technologies for Youth: Understanding the Unique Affordances of Self-Tracking Tools for Adolescents.” New Media & Society, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211040266

Self-Tracking (MIT Press 2016), with Dawn Nafus
Human-Centered Data Science (MIT Press 2022), with Cecilia Aragon, Shion Guha, Marina Kogan and Michael Muller.

Related websites

Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge - Gina Neff