Qatar Computing Research Institute
Discovery to Delivery
Dr. Patrick Meier
Director of Social Innovation
Social Computing
+(974) 44541743
Connect with me
Visit my blog iRevolution or follow me on Twitter @patrickmeier.
I joined QCRI to develop next generation humanitarian technology solutions with some of the world's leading experts in advanced computing.
Research Focus at QCRI
An internationally recognized thought leader on the application of new technologies for crisis early warning, humanitarian response and resilience, Patrick is currently the Director of Social Innovation at QCRI, where he spearheads cutting-edge research and development on next-generation humanitarian technology solutions.
An internationally recognized thought leader on the application of new technologies for crisis early warning, humanitarian response and resilience, Patrick is currently the Director of Social Innovation at QCRI, where he spearheads cutting-edge research and development on next-generation humanitarian technology solutions.
Patrick frequently writes about his research at QCRI on his highly-acclaimed blog iRevolution and Twitter @PatrickMeier.
Patrick frequently writes about his research at QCRI on his highly-acclaimed blog iRevolution and Twitter @PatrickMeier.
Previous Experience
Prior to QCRI, Patrick co-founded and co-directed the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s (HHI) Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning and served as Director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi, leading major crisis mapping efforts in Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Syria. He has consulted extensively for many inter-national organizations and programs including the UN Secretariat, UN Global Pulse, OCHA, UNDP, UNICEF, OSCE, OECD, EC, USAID, DAI, IFES, Swisspeace, Internews and the World Bank. He also co-founded the CrisisMappers Network, the 56Standby Ta67sk Force and the Digital Humanitarians Network.
Prior to HHI, Patrick was a researcher with the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and a fellow at SIPA’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR). He is also an alumnus of the Santa Fe Institute’s (SFI) Complex Systems Summer School and holds a certificate in complexity science from the New England Complex Systems Institute. Patrick has taught undergraduate, graduate and professional seminars on a variety of topics including Conflict and Disaster Early Warning, Complexity Science and Digital Democracy.
Prior to HHI, Patrick was a researcher with the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and a fellow at SIPA’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR). He is also an alumnus of the Santa Fe Institute’s (SFI) Complex Systems Summer School and holds a certificate in complexity science from the New England Complex Systems Institute. Patrick has taught undergraduate, graduate and professional seminars on a variety of topics including Conflict and Disaster Early Warning, Complexity Science and Digital Democracy.
In addition, Patrick is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and a lead contributor to the PeaceTXT project with PopTech and partners. He is also an accomplished speaker, having presented at many international conferences including the Skoll World Forum, Club de Madrid, Mobile World Congress, PopTech, Where 2.0, TTI/Vanguard, SXSW and several TEDx’s.
Professional Experience
- International Network of Crisis Mappers, Co-Founder and Co-Director, 2009 – present
- PeaceTXT, Consultant and Founding Member, 2010 – present
- Standby Volunteer Task Force for Live Mapping, Co-Founder and Co-Director, 2010 – present
- International Network of Crisis Mappers, Co-Founder and Co-Director, 2009 - present
- Ushahidi, Director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships, 2009 - 2012
- Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Co-Director and Advisor, 2007 – 2009
- Meta Activism Board, Advisory Board, 2009 –
- Digital Activism, Director for Applied Research, 2008 – 2009
Professional Associations and Awards
Patrick served on the boards of DigiActive, Digital Democracy, Meta-Activism Project, and Ushahidi and is affiliated with the following:
- International Studies Association (ISA)
- The National Society of Collegiate Scholars
- American Political Science Association (APSA)
- APSA Political Science Forecasting Group (co-founder)
- Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)
- Radical Interpretations of Disasters and Radical Solutions (RADIX)
- United Nations Young Professionals for International Cooperation (YPIC)
Education
- Ph. D. in International Affairs at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, 2012
- Hewlett Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University, Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law, 2011
- M.A. in International Affairs and Conflict Prevention, Columbia University, 2004
- B.A. (honors) in Political Science, Economics and Philosophy, University of York, School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy (UK), 2001
- E.A.P. , Political Science, Economics and Philosophy, University of California at Berkley, 2000
Selected Research
- Heinzelman, Jessica and Patrick Meier. 2012. Crowdsourcing for Human Rights Monitoring: Challenges and Opportunities for Verification. In Human Rights and Information Communication Technologies: Trends and Consequences of Use, ed. John Lannon. IGI Global, forthcoming.
- Faris, David and Patrick Meier. 2012. Digital Activism in Authoritarian States. In Routledge Handbook of Participatory Cultures. Routledge, forthcoming.
- Meier, Patrick. 2012. New Information Technologies and their Impact on the Humanitarian Sector. International Review of the Red Cross, 93(883), forthcoming.
- Meier, Patrick. 2012. Crisis Mapping in Action: How Open Source Software and Global Volunteer Networks Are Changing the World One Map at a Time. Journal of Map and Geography Libraries, 8 (2). Available online.
- Meier, Patrick. 2012. The Role of Ushahidi as a Liberation Technology in Egypt and Beyond. In Liberation Technology, ed. Larry Diamond. Stanford University, forthcoming.
- Heinzelman, J., Gordon, R. and P. Meier, 2011. “Mobile Technology, Crowdsourcingand Peace Mapping: New Theory and Applications for Conflict Management,” in Marta
- Poblet (ed), Mobile technologies for conflict management: new avenues for online dispute resolution, Springer 2011 (forthcoming).
- Lambert, N. and P. Meier, 2011. “Information and Communication Technology in Haitian Earthquake Relief: Organizational Experience,” in Information, Telecommunications and Social Networks in Haitian Relief (NDU Press, forthcoming).
- Faris, D. and P. Meier, 2011. “Digital Activism in Authoritarian States,” in Routledge Handbook of Participatory Cultures (under review).
Connect with me
Visit my blog iRevolution or follow me on Twitter @patrickmeier.
In the News
QCRI scientists recognized with best paper at ISCRAM 2013
22/05/2013
Extracting Information Nuggets from Disaster Related Messages in Social Media authored by QCRI's Muhammad Imran, Carlos Castillo, Patrick Meier, former QCRI post-doc Shady Elbassuoni and Fernando Diaz of Microsoft Research was recognized as the best paper at this year's ISCRAM conference.
Crisis Maps: Harnessing the Power of Big Data to Deliver Humanitarian Assistance
19/05/2013
Dr. Patrick Meier talks about QCRI's work to solve major humanitarian challenges in Forbes.
Research proposal receives QNRF NPRP award
15/05/2013
Dr. Halima Bensmail, QCRI Scientific Computing, is a key investigator on a research proposal awarded by QNRF's sixth NPRP cycle for the proposal titled: Quantitative mapping of HIV incidence among stable couples and evaluation of impact of interventions targeting sero-discordant couples.
Upcoming Events
2013
29/05/2013,
Rhodes Island, Greece
Dr. Halima Bensmail, Senior Scientist of QCRI's Scientific Computing team, is an Invited speaker at the PETRAE, giving a talk on “Time course and Neural Representation of Memorability: faces and places: an alpha-sparse model for classifying memorability regions”
For more info on PETRAE please visit www.petrae.org
09/06/2013 - 14/06/2013,
Atlanta, Georgia USA
The North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL) Annual Conference takes place in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) from June 9 - 14, 2013.
22/06/2013 - 27/06/2013,
New York, New York, USA
Our Data Analytics team will be at 2013 SIGMOD / PODS in New York. The team will present two papers.
Press Releases
QCRI invites applicants for summer internships
08/05/2013
Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) will be kicking off its 2013 summer internship program soon, and invites computer science and computer engineering students to apply. The intensive two-month internship program provides students with the opportunity to work closely with top researchers, and receive practical work experience based on their studies. Applications will be accepted until May 12, 2013.
Presenting a Vision for the Future of Humanitarian Technology
31/03/2013
Dr Patrick Meier, Director of Social Innovation at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) and the world’s foremost expert on humanitarian technology, explores the rise of digital humanitarian response and how new technologies are reshaping the humanitarian space in an upcoming talk.
QCRI and Boeing to collaborate on Data Analytics Research
24/03/2013
Joint project will seek to identify patterns in large data streams
Research collaboration broadens Boeing engagement in Qatar, strengthens relationship with Qatar Foundation
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