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 this area, 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.  José-Rodrigo also helped his brothers to fund and manage a family business, designing and maintaining a database to support its operation. 

In 1997 José-Rodrigo obtained a Fundación Colfuturo scholarship 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. 

In 2002 José-Rodrigo was awarded an ESRC post-doctoral fellowship to consolidate his research agenda.  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). 

José-Rodrigo 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. He held this position until August 2008.

In September 2008 José-Rodrigo moved to Royal Holloway and became the programme director for the Msc in Business Information Systems (BIS).In 2010 he set up the Technology and Governance Network (TGN), an interdisciplinary and international group that seeks to understand the potentials and risks of information and communication technologies to human emancipation.  The network offers career development opportunities for established and less established researchers through visits and PhD exchanges.   

José-Rodrigo has published his research in many journal articles and book chapters in highly recognised systems thinking, management and information systems outlets.  He has singled authored a book on systems practice in the information society and co-edited a book on systems thinking and e-participation.   Currently José-Rodrigo is finishing a monograph on the topic of managing creativity with systems thinking (to be published by Taylor & Francis).

In 2014 José-Rodrigo was awarded a Royal Holloway College Excellence Teaching Commendation by Royal Holloway for his improvement of student engagement into assessment design.  Since 2015 he has taught  undergraduate management level courses including a course on creative process management that he has designed and run for a number of years.   

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.  He has helped organise, co-chair conferences  and delivered invited keynotes and presentations at UK Operational Research conferences 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 also researching in the following topics: 

1. Mental health, employability and the use of job search tools (interdisciplinary project bid).
2. Potential impacts of government digital services in post-conflict situations in Colombia (theoretical conceptualisation). 
3. Systemic creativities in sustainability and social innovation education (collaboration with Politecnico di Milano in Italy since 2017). 
4. Ethical implications of smart meters in UK households (interdisciplinary research with PhD student Xiaoyu Zhang). 

Contact

Email: j.r.cordoba-pachon@rhul.ac.uk 

Twitter: @jrcordobap

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