Meet a Data Scientist-Daniel Messinger

The Meet a Data Scientist series is a chance to get up close and personal with top-level experts in a wide variety of fields that use data science.  The purpose of this series is to introduce our audience to the people behind the data, their lives, interests, career choices, their work, and their passion for how they can use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields.  Join us as we peer behind the curtain and meet the data scientists behind the data! 

Continuing our “Meet a Data Scientist” series, join us on Thursday, April 22, 2021 (3:30-4:30 PM), for a discussion with interdisciplinary developmental psychologist Dr. Daniel Messinger, IDSC Director of Social Systems Informatics, offering a glimpse on how he uses data in his research.

Register Now  |  Thursday, April 22, 2021, 3:30-4:30 PM

TALK TITLE:  Data Drive Development: A Computational Journey

Dr. Messinger is a Cooper Fellow and Professor in the Departments of Psychology & Pediatrics, the Coordinator of the Developmental Psychological Program, and Associate Director for the Child Division (Developmental Program), and the Director of the UM SIB Smile Lab. His specialties are:  social, language, and emotional development; modeling interaction using objectively measured, big behavioral data; and he focuses on autism, attachment, and preschool classrooms. Dr. Messinger uses machine learning to paint an objective picture of children’s interaction and employs computational models to make sense of the resulting big behavioral data. He works with children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), hearing loss, and poverty. By understanding interaction, he seeks to foster pathways to healthy development. Specific projects include the emergence of secure attachment, objective measures of autistic behavior, and language and proximity/orientation networks in inclusive classrooms.

As the author of over 120 scientific publications appearing in journals such as Nature Communications, Developmental Science, and Molecular Autism, Dr. Messinger has over a dozen years of experience leading longitudinal research initiatives funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Institute of Education Sciences.

This event is free and open to the public.