Brandon Kramer, Ph.D.

Hi, my name is Brandon Kramer and I’m a User Experience (UX) Researcher at Edge & Node and The Graph protocol. Over the course of my career, I have acquired a breadth of methodological skills, including survey design and dissemination, user testing, big data analytics, software development, social network analysis, natural language processing, and data visualization. I obtained a Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University in 2019 and have previously held research positions at the University of Iowa, Rutgers University, Barnard College, and the University of Virginia.

During my academic career, I incorporated aspects of sociology, science & technology studies, and data science to study innovation and ethics in science, tech, and health. As my publications and projects pages detail, my main focus during my academic career was studying the conceptualization of sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and diversity in biomedical research. As a postdoc at the University of Virginia, I also worked on a team that studied the scope and impact of open-source software, which materialized into an interest in the blockchain industry. My academic research has been features in Annual Review of Nutrition, Science, Technology and Human Values, BioSocieties, and IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining as well as invited presentations at Harvard University, Rutgers University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Southern California.

At Edge & Node, I now work to improve the usability of The Graph - an open-source technology designed to efficiently query, index, and store blockchain data in a decentralized manner. As a UX Researcher, I work with developers as well as other stakeholders in The Graph’s community to improve how our decentralized network can operate more efficiently. I’m passionate about Web3 and The Graph, more specifically, because I believe decentralized technologies help internet users to take more control over their personal data and because these tools have the potential to undermine the centralized, monopolistic practices we see in many markets across the world today.