Majid Benam joined the Complexity Science Hub in January 2021. He is working for the Seshat: Global History Databank as a database manager and research assistant. He is responsible for designing and maintaining the Seshat database and adapting the existing version to a robust graph database. One of his tasks is to design and build a user-friendly web interface to input and query Seshat data. He is a member of Peter Turchin’s research group, where he also contributes to the creation of a dedicated “Crisis Databank” of around 300 past societies as they went through periods of political crisis.

Majid is interested in data analysis and believes that definite answers to many big questions about the rise and fall of historical empires are buried in the datasets we already have.

Majid has received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology in Iran. He got his master’s degree in micro- and nano-electronic devices from Sharif University of Technology, also in Iran. He has previously worked as a research assistant in quantum transport in the Institute for Microelectronics at TU Wien for three years. Majid’s main research interests include data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.