# About Moritz Stefaner

Moritz Stefaner helps organizations find truth and beauty in relevant and meaningful data.

An independent designer, consultant and researcher with a background in Cognitive Science (B.Sc.) and Interface Design (M.A.), he has spent two decades making complex, large-scale data legible, intriguing, actionable — and, at its best, beautiful.

His clients include the OECD, the WHO, the World Economic Forum, the Google News Initiative, Salesforce, Deutsche Bahn, the Max Planck Society and the German federal government. His most significant projects sit at the strategic intersection of data, design systems and artificial intelligence: the WHO’s institutional data design language; Germany’s official COVID-19 vaccination dashboard (Impfdashboard); the Climate–Conflict–Vulnerability Index for the German Federal Foreign Office; AI-driven generative design tooling for Salesforce (Einstein Designer); Deutsche Bahn’s Peak Spotting passenger-flow analytics; and the seminal OECD Better Life Index.

Public-facing work such as The Rhythm of Food and Scientific American’s The Language of Science reaches audiences far beyond the data community.

Moritz is the record winner of the Information is Beautiful Awards — eleven awards, including four Golds and an Outstanding Individual prize — with further honours including Gold at the National Geographic Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge and medals at the Malofiej Awards. His experimental and artistic work, from Selfiecity and ON BROADWAY to Perpetual Plastic and Multiplicity, has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, Somerset House and Fondation EDF, and tours the world with the Places & Spaces exhibition, shown at more than 375 venues in 28 countries.

He is a frequent keynote speaker — at Eurovis, OpenVisConf, VIZBI, IEEE VIS and the European Communication Summit — co-host of the acclaimed Data Stories podcast (2.7M+ downloads), and author of widely cited research on data-driven storytelling and visualization for science and policy (~1,125 citations, h-index 14). He has taught at the University of Oxford, the OECD, SAP and the Max Planck Society — and keeps exciting people about the magic that emerges when art and science connect.

## By the numbers

- **21 years independent** — Truth & Beauty, since 2005.
- **65 projects shipped** — across 20+ years.
- **130+ talks worldwide** — including keynotes at EuroVis, OpenVisConf, VIZBI, IEEE VIS and the European Communication Summit.
- **11 Information is Beautiful Awards** — 4 Gold — record winner.
- **7 year IiB winning streak** — 2012–2018 — never matched.
- **6 years as an IiB juror** — 2015, '18, '19, '22, '23, '24 — both sides of the table.
- **~1,100 academic citations** — 27 publications · h-index 14 — cited like a tenured academic.
- **2.7M+ podcast downloads** — 11 years co-hosting Data Stories (2012–2023).
- **58 teaching & workshop engagements** — Oxford, OECD, SAP, Max Planck, HfK Bremen.
- **27 exhibitions worldwide** — Venice Biennale of Architecture, SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, Somerset House, Fondation EDF, Max Planck Science Gallery.
- **375+ venues across 28 countries** — work touring the world with the Places & Spaces exhibition.
- **9 Data Cuisine cities** — Helsinki, Berlin, Paris, Boston, Basel, Barcelona, Pristina, Leeuwarden, Gembloux — workshops that turn datasets into edible dishes.
- **47 press features & appearances** — Bloomberg, Fast Company, WIRED, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Der Spiegel.
- **20 awards in total** — including Gold at the National Geographic Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge and medals at the Malofiej Awards.
- **45+ named clients** — OECD, WHO, World Economic Forum, Google News Initiative, Salesforce, Deutsche Bahn, the German federal government.

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