Avner Kantor

Curriculum Vitae

Updated December 30, 2025

Researcher and Data Scientist specializing in online deliberation, data journalism, and network analysis. Combines a background in philosophy with advanced technical expertise in machine learning and NLP to study how data visualization shapes public discourse. Experienced in applying statistical modeling to complex datasets in both academic research and public sector healthcare.

Education

2024

PhD, Information & Knowledge Management — University of Haifa
Advisor: Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli
Dissertation (Article-Based): Online Deliberation and Data Journalism

2015

MA, Philosophy — Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2010

B.A., Philosophy — Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Academic Positions

2021–2022

Adjunct Lecturer — Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy, Reichman University
Taught Introduction to Data Science with Python for Government.

2015–2018

Research Fellow — The Center for Internet Research, University of Haifa
Designed and launched OpenPISA, a platform for analyzing and presenting educational data.

2010–2011

Project Initiator & Coordinator — The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Led an Israeli–German collaboration between the Hebrew University and the Universities of Karlsruhe and Regensburg.

Manuscripts Under Review

Kantor, A., & Rafaeli, S. From data journalism to rationality: A content analysis of audience response in The New York Times. (Revise & Resubmit)

Manuscripts in Preparation

Kantor, A. The architecture of evidence: How data journalism restructures the topology and equality of online deliberation.

Book Chapters

Kantor, A. (2013). Dream and hope. In Narrative, Dreams, Imagination: Israeli and German Youth Imagine their Futures. LIT Verlag.

Papers in Refereed Conference Proceedings

(2025) Kantor, A., & Rafaeli, S. Data, sense, and sensibility: How data journalism style shapes interactivity. Selected Papers of Internet Research (AoIR), Niterói, Brazil.
(2025) Kantor, A., & Rafaeli, S. Conversations with data: How data journalism affects online comments in the New York Times . Proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Waikoloa, USA.
(2021) Kantor, A., & Rafaeli, S. Independence through data journalism (▶️). Selected Papers of Internet Research (AoIR), Virtual Event.
(2020) Kantor, A., & Rafaeli, S. Open PISA: Dashboard for large educational dataset . Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Learning@Scale, Virtual Event.

Applied Data Science & Methodological Contributions

Shalom, M. M., Kantor, A., Azuri, E., Pirian, D. T., & Shmueli, T. (2025). Changes in trends of visits and service utilization by mental health patients in the community: a twelve-year study in Israel. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 14(1).
Shapiro Ben David, S., Kantor, A., Hemo, B., Donskoi, S., Baruch-Gez, S., ... & Hershko, A. Y. (2025). Reported penicillin allergy in Israel: Clinical outcomes and antibiotic costs in a nationwide population-based cohort study. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Global.

Refereed Conference Presentations

(2025) Conversations with data. Israel HCI Conference, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, October 22.
(2025) Conversations with data. Israel Association for Information Systems (ILAIS) Conference, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel, July 7.
(2025) A hybrid analytical framework for studying network mechanisms. Sunbelt International Conference on Social Network Analysis, Paris, France, June 23–29. Accepted; not presented
(2022) What did I learn from making PISA data accessible. Bridging Practice and Research in Education, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, October 20.
(2022) Engagement with visualizations in The New York Times ▶️. The Israeli Visualization Conference, Shenkar College, Ramat Gan, Israel, May 12.
(2020) Does data journalism engage its audience? Computation + Journalism Symposium, Virtual Event, USA, March 20–21.
(2017) Big data and citizen empowerment ▶️. Public Policy and Politics in the Age of Media and Data, Open University of Israel, Ra’anana, Israel, December 24.
(2017) Education data journalism. The Israeli Visualization Conference, University of Haifa, Haifa, June 27.

Refereed Poster Presentations

(2025) Now you see me: Using generative AI to drive engagement with data visualizations. IEEE VIS Workshop on GenAI, Agents, and the Future of VIS, Vienna, Austria, Nov 3.
(2025) Modeling how data journalism shapes discussion networks. Israel Statistics and Data Science Association (ISDSA) Conference, Tel-Aviv, Israel, May 27.

Seminars & Invited Talks

(2024) “Data journalism and learning analytics” ▶️. Lecture recorded for Learning Analytics Café (Prof. Ido Roll’s MOOC), Faculty of Education Science and Technology, Technion, July 29.
(2017) “Data journalism and education.” Faculty of Education Science and Technology, Technion, November 14.
(2017) “How can the public be encouraged to investigate educational questions.” Research Workshop of the Israel Science Foundation, Technion, Haifa, June 25.
(2017) “Education data journalism.” Open Media and Information Lab, Open University of Israel, Ra’anana, February 22.
(2016) “Open PISA Project.” National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education, Ramat Gan, December 28.
(2015) “Data journalism.” Special Seminar for World Statistics Day, Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem, October 22.

Research Grants

Samuel Neaman Institute. Wikipedia digital footprint project (2018). USD $6,000.
AllCloud Co. Cloud hosting support for the Open PISA Project (2017). USD $11,000.
Trump Family Foundation. Developed the Open PISA Project (2015–2020). USD $120,000.
DAAD Center for German Studies. Narrative, Dreams, Imagination: Israeli and German Youth Imagine their Futures (2010–2011). USD $10,000.

Professional Associations & Activities

Ad-Hoc reviewer: HICSS, CHI, CSCW, Public Understanding of Science (PUS)
Memberships: International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA), Israel Association for Information Systems (ILAIS), Wikimedia Israel

Work Experience

2024–present

Statistician — Central Bureau of Statistics
Conducted formal time series analysis for official statistical reporting.

2021–2024

Data Scientist — Maccabi Health Services
Led research on physician burnout prediction, patient wait time forecasting, and healthcare trends analysis using statistical and machine learning methods; produced research papers and reports to support decision-making and improve patient care.

2020–2021

Data Scientist — Corona National Information and Knowledge Center
Conducted research on vaccine effectiveness and COVID-19 infection patterns in children, delivering data-driven insights to inform national response.

2018–2020

Data Scientist — Center for Educational Technology
Developed adaptive learning systems by integrating psychometric modeling and machine learning.

Technical Skills

Core Competencies

Python, R, SQL, pandas, tidyverse

Statistical Modeling & ML: scikit-learn, caret, Hayes’ PROCESS macro

Time Series: Prophet, X-13ARIMA-SEATS, fpp3

Network Analysis: NetworkX, igraph

Additional Skills

Visualization & Dashboards: ggplot2, Plotly, R Shiny

Web Scraping & Automation: httr, rvest, Selenium, pyppeteer, Playwright

Cloud & Deployment: AWS S3, Heroku, Azure, GCP

Databases: SQL Server

References

Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli
President, Shenkar College of Engineering; former faculty member, School of Management, University of Haifa.
Dissertation Supervisor.
Email: president.office@shenkar.ac.il

Prof. Ayelet Baram-Tsabari
Head, Science Communication Research Group, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Email: ayelet@technion.ac.il

Prof. Karin Nahon
Dean, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Reichman University.
Email: knahon@runi.ac.il