Professors from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy are making great strides with their research by participating in fellowships around the world. SPP Associate Professor Kathleen Vogel has recently been named a Rutherford Visiting Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, which brings skilled researchers to the UK.
“The Turing Institute is a center that was established by the UK government to focus on efforts around big data issues,” Vogel says. “I thought it was a really exciting initiative and I thought it would be a great place to interact with a whole new set of researchers, including some academics, some non-academics, potentially some governments or industry-related researchers working in similar areas.”
As part of the fellowship, Vogel will be at the Turing Institute to focus on her big data-focused research. “In addition to my existing research projects, the Turing Institute’s intent of these fellowships is to explore possibilities for new collaborations between the Institute, researchers and international academics,” Vogel says. “So part of my job while I’m there is to meet with a variety of Turing-affiliated researchers at different British universities. The goal will be to identify different researchers who might have an interest in some of the research areas that I’m interested in. Most of my research is looking at ethical and policy issues around big data, so I’ll be looking for other UK researchers who are affiliated with Turing who might also be interested in some of those areas.”
“In terms of specific research collaborations that I’ll be exploring while I’m over there, I have a research project looking at gene editing and different security issues around how to understand the development of gene editing,” she says. “Another area that I’m interested in exploring is human trafficking.”
Vogel says she’s looking forward to facilitating collaboration for her personal research during her time at the Turing Institute. “I also have my School of Public Policy hat on, and I’m also curious to see if there are other areas that could be of interest more broadly to the people of the School of Public Policy or across campus.”
She adds that she’ll be exploring opportunities to connect SPP students with her new research projects and connections at the Turing Institute. “On the teaching front, I’m curious to see what interesting experiences might come from this,” she says. “I’m looking forward to giving students some potential real-world skills in big data research and big data analysis that they could actually apply to future career options that they might have.”
Vogel will be stationed at the Turing Institute until January 2019.