Monica Lopez-Gonzalez, MA, PhD

Dr. Monica Lopez-Gonzalez is a cognitive scientist leading the way for an ethical, safe, and sustainable future with artificial intelligence (AI). She takes a human-centric and risk management-based approach to the development and application of emerging smart technologies and advocates interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and entrepreneurial integration to drive innovation and connected communities.

Dr. Lopez-Gonzalez works on developing innovative research collaborations with Hopkins faculty for novel AI-based healthcare applications.

She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science of the Whiting School of Engineering and faculty lecturer in the Artificial Intelligence Program - Engineering for Professionals of the Whiting School of Engineering. Her courses uniquely intersect Science, Technology, Ethics, Design, Policy and Governance.

Dr. Lopez-Gonzalez earned her BA degrees in Psychology and French, and a MA and PhD in Cognitive Science, all from Johns Hopkins University, and a Certificate of Art in Photography from Maryland Institute College of Art. She completed her postdoctoral research fellowship in musical creativity in the Department of Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has used a variety of behavioral, physiological and brain measures (i.e. functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)) and techniques.

As her work in human creativity has intersected with AI development and its consequences for national security and foreign policy, she also completed a Graduate Certificate in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She also has a certificate in AI Policy from the Center for AI & Digital Policy, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Lopez-Gonzalez is the co-founder and CEO of Cognitive Insights for Artificial Intelligence (CIfAI) where she leads the design and execution of original research and consulting projects dedicated to the implementation of AI governance for AI-based systems across various industries. Prior, she co-founded the consulting company La Petite Noiseuse Productions (LPNP) in 2014. As CEO and Chief Science Officer at LPNP she created a novel R&D platform using the arts to empirically investigate critical questions on human intelligence. Prior to co-founding LPNP, she worked in the biotech industry as director of business development for various biotechnology companies and applied her scientific and storytelling acumen to bridge the business of healthcare with rising digital challenges.

Dr. Lopez-Gonzalez is a long-time Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar in Salzburg, Austria and Washington, D.C. and was recently awarded a research award for soft law application to AI in Healthcare, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, Center for Law, Science & Innovation. She has been a program committee member for IS&T's Human Vision & Electronic Imaging international conference; a subject editor for the Social Sciences & Humanities Open Journal of Elsevier, Oxford, UK; and a member of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity (SfNC). She is also a STEMM research advisor in the Department of Neurology for the annual Johns Hopkins Internship in Brain Science (JHIBS) where she advises high school and undergraduate students in the areas of industry practices across the brain sciences and AI ethics and governance, as well as research design and analysis methods.

Dr. Lopez-Gonzalez is a sought-after plenary and keynote speaker, panelist, and adviser nationally and internationally. Her work has been presented and published in a range of formats for various audiences.