LSE appoints Professor Helen Margetts to set up new Global Institute for Technology and Society
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is delighted to announce that Professor Helen Margetts OBE FBA FAcSS has been appointed as Professor of Political Science and Public Policy in the Department of Government and Director of the Data Science Institute (DSI).
Professor Margetts will spearhead the transformation of the DSI into a world-leading Global Institute for Technology and Society. The Institute will realise LSE’s bold vision to place the social sciences at the centre of AI development. Pioneering in scope and ambition, the Institute will conduct research to inform AI’s capabilities, shape its impacts, and bring about a new age of AI-powered discovery in the social sciences. Alongside Professor Margetts, Professor Cosmina Dorobantu will take up the role of Co-Director, having joined the DSI as Professor in Practice last year.
Professor Larry Kramer, President and Vice Chancellor of LSE, said:“I am delighted to welcome Professor Helen Margetts to lead the Data Science Institute as it evolves into the Global Institute for Technology and Society. As advances in AI accelerate and reshape our societies, universities have a vital role to play in how these technologies are understood and governed. Professor Margetts brings an exceptional combination of intellectual leadership, interdisciplinary vision, and public engagement to the School. Her leadership will strengthen LSE’s ability to convene across disciplines and sectors, ensuring that data science and AI are developed in ways that benefit society.”
Professor Margetts brings a renowned reputation for institution-building to the School, having spent her career creating nationally and internationally recognised centres of excellence at the intersection of technology, politics, and public policy. She joins LSE from the University of Oxford, where she has been Professor of Society and the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) since 2004, serving as its director from 2011 to 2018. Early to recognise the significance of data science for the social sciences, Professor Margetts turned the OII into a multidisciplinary department dedicated to understanding and shaping the relationship between society and digital technologies. During her directorship, Professor Margetts doubled the size of the Institute and established it as a world-class centre of scholarship and methodological innovation. While at Oxford, Professor Margetts was a Professorial Fellow at Mansfield College and will continue there as a Senior Research Fellow.
From 2018 to 2025 Professor Margetts founded and directed the Public Policy Programme at The Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and AI. The Programme's research created innovative AI models to improve productivity in the public sector, shaped policymaking across the Global South, informed landmark legislation like the Online Safety Act, and influenced global approaches to AI governance.
Professor Margetts was also University College London's first Professor of Political Science and Director of its School of Public Policy, which she transformed into a leading institution that went on to achieve worldwide impact in both research and teaching on political science and public policy.
Underpinning this record of institutional leadership is a substantial body of research and writing on the relationship between technology, politics, public policy, and government. Professor Margetts has published over 150 articles and six books, including Political Turbulence: how social media shape collective action (Princeton University Press), which won the Political Studies Association’s WJM Mackenzie prize for best politics book in 2017. She is currently completing her seventh book, AI and Digital Era Governance, which examines how government’s capabilities, position within society, and ability to meet external challenges are all critically shaped by digital change.
Professor Margetts has served on numerous public service bodies, including the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (from 2025) and the Home Office Scientific Advisory Council (2019–2026). She was awarded an OBE for services to social and political science in the 2019 New Year's Honours List, made a Fellow of the British Academy in July 2019, and was elected as a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2011.
Professor Helen Margetts said: “As AI reshapes our economies, institutions, and public life, we need to understand how these technologies can be designed and governed in ways that serve society. This means bringing social science insight directly into how AI is developed, examining how it is changing our world, and using AI tools to open up new ways of understanding people and societies. LSE is uniquely placed to lead this work, and I look forward to collaborating with colleagues and partners within and beyond LSE to ensure AI delivers real public benefit.”
Professor Sara Hobolt, Head of the Department of Government, said: "Helen is an internationally renowned scholar whose expertise in AI, technology, public policy, and democracy will make an invaluable contribution to the Department of Government, the Data Science Institute, and the wider LSE community. We are delighted to welcome Professor Helen Margetts back to LSE and the Department of Government, where she completed her PhD. "