Jacopo Ottaviani is a computer scientist and data journalist who combines code and data with storytelling to investigate urgent social issues through data, satellite imagery, and interactive visualisations.

He currently serves as senior strategist at Code for Africa. As an ICFJ Knight Fellow from 2016 to 2019, he shaped teams and designed programmes backed by the World Bank, Google News Initiative, GIZ, and the Gates Foundation, with projects spanning Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Senegal.

His recent work merges satellite data, drone imagery, and forensic analysis to address issues including migration (the Search and Rescue data portal for MSF), land rights (HOTOSM and InfoNile, an open data initiative on water security in the Nile Basin), deforestation (with the Pulitzer Center), and broader sustainable development goals (with UNDP and the Arab Development Portal).

His projects have been published by Thomson Reuters Foundation (UK), Der Spiegel (Germany), El País (Spain), and Internazionale (Italy), Daily Maverick (South Africa) with support from the Pulitzer Center and the European Journalism Centre. He teaches data journalism at several European universities, including Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, SISSA in Trieste, Aarhus University, and Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. He is a member of the European Press Prize preparatory committee and works as a trainer with BBC Media Action.