About us
1. Founder, Jonah Lynch
Since childhood, Jonah pursued a renaissance ideal: competence in many fields, endless curiosity. He began his search for knowledge as a Physics student at McGill university, and then broadened into humanistic interests, including studies in philosophy, a doctorate in theology, service as a priest, and a second Ph.D. in artificial intelligence applied to ancient history. His thesis was entitled “Method and Intelligence: Digital approaches to memory and communication in historiography”. He resides in Italy and divides his time between scientific research, consulting, and teaching.
2. The road to Innovation Lens
Since age seven he has been a computer programmer. His interest in technology led him to write a best-selling book about technology and human relationships entitled The Scent of Lemons. He has given lectures in prestigious settings around the world, including Oxford University, MIT, the University of Chicago, and the JRC.
Jonah has dedicated much of his career to education, and knows firsthand how difficult and how important it is to choose research topics well. He holds an M.Ed in Science Education from the George Washington University, and has taught at all levels, including 'Elements of statistics, probabilistic reasoning, and R' at the University of Milan-Bicocca.
He also has a longstanding interest in art. He has collaborated with musicians, mosaic artists and painters, and has directed several documentary films and museum exhibits. Recently he collaborated on two AI-based art projects, the Compos[t]ing project sponsored by the European Union JRC, and an AI-based translation of Shane Guffogg’s paintings into music, which was performed at the Venice Biennale in 2024.
Jonah's data science highlights include creating an algorithm to predict hospital emergency room overflow, developing visualization software for knowledge graphs that represent scholarly discourse, and using language models to map the gods of Ancient Mesopotamia. These explorations led to the algorithm at the heart of innovationlens.org, a tool to help identify promising topics for future research.
3. Co-founder, Giacomo Radaelli
Giacomo Radaelli, armed with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of San Diego and an MSc in Data Science from the CUNY Graduate Center, is a data scientist obsessed with the patterns in complex systems. His research has explored topics like demographic influences on professional soccer players, while his expertise in statistical analysis and software development proved crucial in validating and launching Innovation Lens in December 2024. When Jonah pitched the vision for a tool to guide researchers toward promising topics, Giacomo jumped in, designing the platform’s computational backbone and helping transform the idea into a powerful resource for scientists worldwide.