Adriano Belisario

Adriano Belisario combines expertise in communication and data to address important human rights concerns. As a long-time open-source advocate, he has combined advanced technological applications with journalistic investigations and social research to address issues like police violence and socio-environmental challenges. Belisario taught data journalism in several Brazilian postgraduate courses and holds an MSc in Social Data Science from the Oxford Internet Institute. While there, he collaborated with Instituto Fogo Cruzado to implement an open-source language model that uses social media data to identify gun violence reports in real-time. He also earned an MA in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). In partnership with Medialab/UFRJ and Agência Autônoma, Belisario co-developed Documental.xyz, an award-winning initiative that employs diverse investigative methods, such as Natural Language Processing, OSINT, and forensic architecture, with storytelling to equip grassroots communities with compelling evidence related to human rights violations.