Dr José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón

José-Rodrigo is a passionate and dedicated academic with a long standing interest and track record in applied systems thinking or AST.

Prior to his masters and PhD degrees in the UK in AST, he graduated from computer science and systems engineering from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia (his native country).  He then worked as a software developer, business analyst and information technology advisor for Fundación Social y sus empresas. During this time José-Rodrigo also helped his brothers to fund and manage a family business, designing and maintaining a database to support its administrative operation. 

In 1997 José-Rodrigo obtained a Fundación Colfuturo scholarship in Colombia to study his masters in management systems at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom.  In 1998 he was awarded a Hull University scholarship to do his PhD in the use of systems thinking to information technology planning which he completed in early 2002. 

José-Rodrigo was then awarded an ESRC post-doctoral fellowship to consolidate his research agenda and in 2003 he was nominated to the William Newman Award for best paper based on a dissertation at the Annual Meeting of the US Academy of Management in Seattle (US). 

He then joined the University of Hull as a temporary lecturer in management at the end of 2003 and was confirmed as a permanent lecturer in management systems in May 2004, holding this position until August 2008 when he moved to Royal Holloway as a senior lecturer in technology and information management. He officiated as programme director for the Msc in Business Information Systems (BIS) between 2008 and 2011 and  again as acting director in 2014.

At Royal Holloway José-Rodrigo coordinates the Technology and Governance Network (TGN), an interdisciplinary and international group that seeks to understand the potentials and risks of technologies (including information and communication) to human emancipation. 

The network offers career development opportunities for established and less established researchers through visits and PhD exchanges.   To date, the network has gained an international presence and continues organising relevant activities for research and practice, offering diverse opportunities for presentation and publication of insights through its members.

José-Rodrigo has published his research in many journal articles and book chapters in highly and internationally recognised systems thinking, management and information systems outlets.  He has authored a book on systems practice in the information society and co-edited a book on systems thinking and e-participation.  José-Rodrigo's new monograph on managing creativity with systems thinking is to be published by Routledge in 2019.

José-Rodrigo has also supervised or co-supervised several PhD students to succesful completion in the areas of systems thinking, organisational communication and electronic government.  Both as a young and established researcher, he has helped organise, co-chair and deliver events, invited keynotes and presentations at the UK Operational Research Society since 2002. He has also been involved in studying and advising the Colombian government in their e-government initiatives using his expertise in applied systems thinking.

Currently José-Rodrigo is researching the following topics: 

1. Mental health, employability and the use of job search tools (interdisciplinary project with Helen Pote and Philip Wu from Royal Holloway).
2. Systemic creativities in sustainability and social innovation education (collaboration with Politecnico di Milano in Italy since 2017). 
3. Ethical implications of smart meters configurations for UK households (interdisciplinary PhD research with Xiaoyu Zhang, Stephanie Kuenzel and Chris Watkins from Royal Holloway). 

Contact

Email: j.r.cordoba-pachon@rhul.ac.uk 

Twitter: @jrcordobap

Personal blog http://systemsthinkinglenses.blogspot.co.uk/