Meet Dr. Louis Hickman

I grew up in Indiana and live now in Blacksburg with my wife, Ashley, 3 yeard old daughter, Harper, 1 year old son, Conrad, dog (Eclipse), and cat (Luna). As an undergraduate I double majored in creative writing and English and double minored in film and history, and I hold my M.S. in Computer and Information Technology and Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology–all from Purdue University.

It’s a perfect place to live for us–quiet and safe for the kids!

Broadly, I focus on two streams of research: applying machine learning and natural language processing to psychological research, and investigating various forms of bias. There are many opportunities to advance psychology with data-driven approaches, as they open up new possibilities for ways of measuring certain constructs or analyzing data. For the bias aspect, I grew up in a very small town and observed what a lack of opportunity does to people–and I want to make sure that people are not excluded from opportunities due to aspects outside of their control.

The bias research I do, I think everyone today agrees is valuable. For the machine learning work, it is important that we establish a body of evidence for personnel assessments powered by machine learning because these tools are already being used by organizations today. Our research can help ensure that they are reliable, valid, and fair, as currently, their value proposition is based on saving organizations money.

I love to learn, and doing research is a great way to keep learning. 

The specific advice was, “Graduate school is a marathon–not a sprint.” But, the advice is applicable to one’s career, relationships, and life in general.

I have always been interested in science, but my true interests emerged in graduate school. It is difficult to truly understand what “science” is without doing it full time.

A very different answer from a few years ago–spending time with my kids.

Everywhere.

My postdoc was at the University of Pennsylvania working with Angela Duckworth–known for popularizing the concept of Grit.