The department is privileged to welcome Dr Paul Laughton as senior lecturer to our staff. He joins the department with a range of experience from academia, business and international science unions. For a large part of Paul’s career he was a lecturer at the Department of Information and Knowledge Management at the University of Johannesburg. Paul completed his PhD in Information Management with a thesis entitled “Open Archival Information System (OAIS) as a data curation standard in the World Data Centre” at the Department of Information and Knowledge Management in 2012 under the supervision of Prof Tanya Du Plessis.

Paul left the University of Johannesburg to start a company in 2018, which in itself was a significant learning curve. After some time, Paul decided in 2019 to seek formal employment again, and he joined the Manufacturing Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSETA) as a knowledge manager. This gave Paul an opportunity and experience in the public sector (still part of the greater Post School Education and Training Sector), giving him a unique insight into how policy and programmes align to achieve national targets, ultimately creating lasting change.

Paul has been involved in the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), where he was the South African Chair of CODATA between 2016 and 2018. He also served two terms on the CODATA Executive Committee, giving him an insight into the work that goes behind the scenes to create awareness for data management, as well as the development of data management standards and practices on an international stage.

From a research perspective, Paul has an interest in a number of fields related to data, information and knowledge management. Currently he is very interested in the ethics of Automated Intelligence (AI), and how data is used for automated decision making.

Paul is blessed with a family, and spends his off time with his wife (Tishka) and their two children Ruth (8) and Adam (5).