Hi, my name is Timo Spinde. I was born and raised in Schliersee, Bavaria, Germany. Throughout my life, I have been driven by the belief that creating new things and finding solutions is possible, and that taking risks and venturing into the unknown is often necessary to bring new ideas to life.

With strong interests in both technology and communication, I completed two parallel bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Media and Communication at the University of Passau, followed by a master’s degree in Data Science at the University of Konstanz and the University of Haifa. I then pursued my research interests at the intersection of data science and journalism through a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Wuppertal, the University of Göttingen, and NII Tokyo, which I defended with distinction (summa cum laude, top 5%). As a postdoctoral researcher at NII Tokyo, following previous work at the University of Queensland, I focus on the automatic detection of media bias and on raising awareness of it. I believe that technology can be a powerful tool for change, especially in the way we engage with information. Beyond research, I have led over 20 academic courses, primarily in web design, engineering, and data science.

To connect interdisciplinary research on media bias, I founded and coordinate the Media Bias Group, an international research network dedicated to the topic. I am passionate about bringing together diverse collaborators and believe strongly in the value of international and interdisciplinary teams. Within the Media Bias Group, researchers from different disciplines work together to develop systems and datasets that uncover media bias and unbalanced coverage. Our shared goal is to understand how and why people perceive news content as biased or one-sided. Across the group and related projects, we have secured approximately two million Euros in funding to date. Alongside the Media Bias Group, I was awarded German EXIST funding to establish the industry-oriented narrative analysis startup Tegami.ai.

Outside academia, I have more than ten years of experience as a web designer and founder, combining multimedia, journalistic, and computer science skills across research and entrepreneurial projects. I was an early intern at Celonis and founded and scaled my own ventures across sustainable fashion, events, and digital consulting, including Bodensee-liebe.com and Kneipentour-konstanz.de.

Throughout my studies, I was a scholarship holder in the journalistic excellence program of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung. I actively review for EMNLP and ACL ARR and serve as a board member of the University Association for Information Science. I have supervised more than 30 bachelor’s and master’s theses and am actively mentoring Ph.D. students and early-career researchers, including Smi Hinterreiter, Martin Wessel, Isabella Habereder, Filip Kučera, Florian Braun, Christoph Mandl.

In my spare time, I work on my music project, T_o, producing progressive electronic music with a focus on electric guitar. I am also a board member of Marktvolk von Espen, an acting group with more than 100 members. I enjoy trying new things, especially skiing, cross-country skiing, hiking, swimming, and surfing.