Rocío Joo

Rocío Joo is a senior data scientist on the research and innovation team at Global Fishing Watch. She oversees the development and improvement of the organization’s fishing and vessel behavioral models, while also leading research efforts on forced labor and coordinating research partnerships in Latin America.

With her scientific background and experience in statistics, programming and movement analysis, Joo contributes to team projects and scientific papers, particularly those related to fishing vessels and seabirds tracking. Her main focus has been on Global Fishing Watch’s forced labor research projects, developing a machine learning algorithm and network models that can help predict and understand a vessel’s risk of forced labor involvement.

Prior to joining Global Fishing Watch, Joo worked in academia, at Instituto del Mar del Perú, Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer, France, and the University of Florida in the U.S., conducting fisheries and movement ecology research.

Joo obtained her bachelor’s degree in statistics engineering at Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Peru, a master’s degree in biostatistics and her doctorate in ecosystems at Université de Montpellier, France.