J. Nathan Matias is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University, where he founded and leads the Citizens and Technology Lab, a public-interest research group that organizes citizen behavioral science and behavioral consumer protection research for digital life. Matias is also pioneering industry-independent evaluations on the impact of tech platform policies in society.

Matias previously held positions at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy, and the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Matias did his PhD at the MIT Center for Civic Media and MIT Media Lab. Before MIT, Matias worked in tech startups, helped start a series of education and journalistic charities, and studied English/postcolonial literature at the University of Cambridge and Elizabethtown College. During the summer of 2022 and summer of 2023, Matias was a Knight First Amendment Institute visiting associate research scholar where he focused on projects that promoted innovative and inclusive paths forward for industry-independent research on technology and society.

Matias has received numerous honors in academia, industry, journalism, and nonprofits. In 2023, he was awarded the Mozilla Rise25 award for research and policy work for a fairer, more ethical internet. He received the Nelson Award from the Association for Computer Machinery and the Linda Tischler Award from FastCompany, where his work has been honored twice in the Innovation by Design awards. He has held scholarships and fellowships at the Aspen Institute, St John’s College Cambridge, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Einhorn Center at Cornell. Matias has also received several awards for nonfiction writing and documentary media.