Dr. Joseph Lorenzo Hall

Joseph Lorenzo Hall is a distinguished technologist at the Internet Society, where his work lies at the intersection of computer science, law, and policy. He leads programs focused on online trust and safety and an open and trustworthy Internet, advocating for policy, technology, and commercial decisions that put people's safety, security, and privacy first. Hall's background is in astrophysics and information science, and his PhD research focused on the security and transparency of computerized voting machines. He is passionate about making complex technology understandable and accessible, ensuring it is legible and usable for everyone.

Prior to joining the Internet Society in 2019, he was the Chief Technologist and Director of the Internet Architecture project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington, DC-based non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring the internet remains open, innovative and free.

Prior to that, Hall was a postdoctoral research fellow with Helen Nissenbaum at New York University, Ed Felten at Princeton University and Deirdre Mulligan at University of California, Berkeley. He received his PhD in information systems from the UC Berkeley School of Information in 2008. His thesis used electronic voting as a critical case study in digital government transparency.

Hall holds master’s degrees in astrophysics and information systems from UC Berkeley and was a founding member of the National Science Foundation’s ACCURATE Center (A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections). He has served as an expert on independent teams invited by the States of California, Ohio and Maryland to analyze legal, privacy, security, usability and economic aspects of voting systems. He has also served on various boards of directors, including the California Voter Foundation and the Verified Voting Foundation, and as a member of technical advisory boards to the Los Angeles County's Open Technology Advisory Group, the Electronic Registration Information Center, TechCongress, the Center for Civic Design, and VotingWorks.

In 2012, Hall received the John Gideon Memorial Award from the Election Verification Network for contributions to election verification. In 2017, he was part of a team that received the Researcher Award at the 2017 O'Reilly Security Defender Awards, in recognition of the team's dedication and innovative contributions to election security for organizing the first Voting Machine Hacking Village at DEFCON 25.