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 bringing people together, taking risks, and venturing into the unknown is absolutely necessary to bring new ideas to life and create something meaningful.

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 media bias awareness. 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. Our shared goal is to understand how and why people perceive diverse forms of 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 and serve as a board member of the University Association for Information Science. I have supervised over 50 bachelor’s and master’s theses and actively mentor Ph.D. students and early-career researchers, including Smi Hinterreiter, Martin Wessel, Isabella Habereder, Filip Kučera, Florian Braun, and Christoph Mandl. For full lists, please see the collaborators on the Media Bias Group Website.

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 in Germany. I enjoy trying new things, most recently West Coast swing dancing, and I like bringing people together through shared activities. In Tokyo, for example, we founded a small international club called “German Cooking Class,” where we introduce German dishes to Japanese and international friends. We are also currently preparing a special DJ set for an international community event we host. Beyond that, I especially enjoy skiing, cross-country skiing, hiking, swimming, surfing, and traveling, which has taken me to more than 50 countries and continues to shape how I see different cultures and perspectives.