About


Hey! I’m Holly.

I’m a first-year PhD student in computer science at UC Berkeley where I’m fortunate to be advised by Ben Recht. Previously, I received my Bachelor’s in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and my Master’s in human rights studies from Columbia University.

I work on on interdisciplinary applications of computer science, from astrophysics to history to politics. In the past, I’ve revealed the hidden text and structure of 300-year-old sealed historical documents and built a family tree of the stars in our Milky Way based on their chemical signatures. I’ve designed lightweight modular truss structures at NASA and helped build the first benchmark for co-evolving design and control in soft robots. At the other end of my research, I have produced multiple large-scale studies that quantatively analyze anti-Palestinian bias in major American media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and I’ve catalogued how the Israeli government has spent millions of dollars in an attempt to influence and suppress student opinion on US college campuses. My research has been featured in over 100 media outlets and has been liked and shared tens of thousands of times on social of media.

Please enjoy this evolving portfolio of some my smaller and larger projects! Feel free to shoot me an email at holly_jackson@berkeley.edu. You can also check out my CV.