Juan Carlos De Martin is full professor of computer engineering at the Politecnico of Turin (Italy), where in 2006 he founded, with Marco Ricolfi, the Nexa Center for Internet & Society.
In 2019 De Martin, while serving as Vice Rector for Culture and Communication, ideated and founded Biennale Tecnologia, a large cultural festival on technology and society, of which he curated, together with Luca De Biase, the first four editions (2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024). De Martin’s main ongoing research topic is the interplay between digital technologies and democracy, with a specific focus on power. In 2023 he published a book titled: “Contro lo Smartphone: per una tecnologia più democratica” (ADD Editore); an updated and expanded edition will be published in English by Pluto Press in 2027 under the title: “The Compulsory Machine: Power, Exploitation, and the Fight for a Democratic Smartphone”. Previously De Martin worked on the future of university in the Internet age, a topic which he addressed in the book Università Futura - Tra Democrazia e Bit (in Italian, Codice Edizioni, 2017). In 2012 he edited, together with Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture (OpenBookPublishers, UK). All three books are published under a Creative Commons license and are freely available online. In 2028 a new book on the computerization of the world will be published in Italy by Einaudi.
In 2013 he was appointed expert member of a study commission on Internet rights established by the President of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies; in 2015 the parliamentary commission published a Declaration of Internet Rights. Between 2003 and 2018 he was in charge (and Public Lead until 2012), together with prof. Marco Ricolfi, of the Creative Commons Italy project. Between 2007 and 2011 Juan Carlos De Martin was the coordinator of COMMUNIA, the European thematic network on the digital public domain. In the following years he coordinated (or partecipated in) several other EU-funded research projects and he often acted as reviewer and expert for the European Commission. In 2011 Dr De Martin was appointed Senior Visiting Researcher at Keio University (Keio Research Institute at SFC), a position he held until 2014. Between 2007 and 2015 he was the president of the libraries of the Polytechnic of Turin, while between 2015 and 2018 he served as a member of the Academic Senate.
Before returning to Italy in 1998, Juan Carlos De Martin was a visiting researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara (1993-1995). In 1996, after receiving a Ph.D. in Telecommunications at the Politecnico di Torino, he worked for two years in the corporate R&D laboratories of Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, Texas. Juan Carlos De Martin serves as member of the Scientific Board of the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani and of the Biennale Democrazia. He is also a Member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. De Martin often acts as a commentator and op-ed contributor in Italian media. Juan Carlos De Martin is the author, or co-author, of over 160 scientific papers and book chapters.
