Jerik Cruz is a PhD candidate in political economy and computational methodology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a recipient of the MIT Homer A. Burnell Presidential Fellowship. His current work spans research and policy engagements related to the evolution of industrial and innovation policy in the global knowledge economy, the effects of emerging algorithmic technologies on the politics of developing democracies, and the development of new understandings of state capacity and accountability using computational methods.

Before his PhD studies, Jerik advised and consulted for international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, and the International Labour Organization, among others. He also served as an advocacy strategist on multi-awarded public health, land rights, and environmental justice campaigns in the Philippines, including the campaign to legislate and implement the Philippines’ Sin Tax Law of 2012, which is today funding the country’s universal healthcare program. He completed his master’s degree in 2016 from the Graduate Institute of Geneva as the Institute’s Prunier Foundation Scholar and as Laureate for the Pralong Prize for graduate students in Switzerland.