Louise Marie Hurel is a researcher with more than 10 years of experience working at the intersection of technology, cybersecurity and geopolitics. Despite being a researcher by heart and training, most of her professional and scholarly trajectory has been marked by a strong engagement in-between academic, policy and technical expert circles.

A little more detail…

Her work and research focuses on international cyber security policy, private actors, expertise, cyber diplomacy and incident response. She is particularly interested in questions concerning the overlap of cybersecurity and development, inequalities and the role of actors (public and private) in the Global South.

Louise is a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute's Cyber Programme where she works across multiple thematic areas. Among different projects, Louise currently leads the Programme's international work on Responsible Cyber Behaviour, in particular the Global Partnership for Responsible Cyber Behaviour–an international network of over 70 scholars and practitioners–and RUSI's joint project work stream on Private Sector influence in Cyber Statecraft.

She is a PhD researcher at the London School of Economics, where she was previously awarded Distinction in obtaining her MSc in Media and Communications (Data and Society). Louise is also a non-resident senior researcher at the Brazilian Centre for International Relations (CEBRI). In 2024, Louise was nominated as one of three academia/civil society representatives to integrate Brazil's inaugural National Cybersecurity Committee.

For more than half a decade, Louise Marie set up and coordinated Igarapé Institute’s Digital Security Programme. As coordinator, she oversaw the Programme team, developed a portfolio of programmatic areas (namely cybersecurity policy, AI in public security and mis/disinformation), and conducted advocacy in national, international, and multi stakeholder forums.

In 2022, she founded the Latin American Cybersecurity Research Network (LA/CS Net), an initiative to connect scholars across the region and contribute to the expansion of cyber security research that is more culturally sensitive.

Louise has advised specific agencies of the United Nations on data and cyber security, contributed to the work of the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report and has provided multiple research-based talks to governments, companies and scholars. She has represented Brazil in the BRICS Youth Forum 2017, been nominated 35 under 35 Future Leaders CIDOB-Santander and received awards and prizes for her academic research, in Brazil and Europe.

Additionally, Louise serves in multiple advisory boards. She is the co-chair of the Global Forum of Cyber Expertise (GFCE) Advisory Board, as well as member of other advisory boards: Carnegie Endowment’s Partnership for Countering Influence Operations’ (PCIO) and the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR).

Her work has been featured in both mainstream and specialised media outlets such as the Foreign Affairs Latin America, Agence France-Presse, Council on Foreign Relations, Lawfare Media, Americas Quarterly, Open Democracy and journals such as the Journal of Cyber Policy. Her work has also been cited in official national cybersecurity strategies and international organisations’ reports.