John Hester

(he/him/his)

PhD Student

  • Personal Health Informatics
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Data Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Master of Public Health, Brown University
  • BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, emphasis in upstream healthcare and behavioral modeling, Emory University

Jack Hester is a doctoral student at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, advised by Stephen Intille and Matthew Goodwin. His doctoral research, which he began in 2021 and expects to complete in 2026, focuses on improving personal health informatics. In particular, he aims to combine wearables, biomarkers, and environmental sensors with ecological momentary assessment, n-of-1 sampling, and data visualization. 

Through countless surgeries and doctor visits, Hester has constantly imagined ways to improve medical equipment, cures, and doctor–patient interactions. To do so, he has adopted an interdisciplinary blend of technology and health care, and has worked in computational and biological modeling, natural language processing, web development, data visualization, education, and public health interventions. He also seeks inspiration and methods from population biology, architecture, and aerospace engineering. Hester has delved into mathematical visualizations, taught a research course at Brown University, and completed work related to government public health responses. 

Hester is affiliated with the Computational Behavioral Science Lab and the mHealth Research Group. Outside of academia, he is a professionally certified ski instructor and an avid chef.