Areas of Expertise: Bridging the gap between publishing and technology

As Elsevier’s VP Content Innovation since 2009, IJsbrand Jan strives to make the end user smile —helping scientists do something they weren’t able to do yesterday. Every product development process, he believes, should begin with getting close to users and learning their pain points. Only then is it possible to successfully apply evolving technologies into solutions that really work.

IJsbrand Jan first joined Elsevier in 1997 working in a variety of positions to bridge the gap between publishing and technology. From 1999-2002, he served as the Vice President of Technology at Elsevier Engineering Information (Hoboken, USA), leading the transformation into the second-generation Engineering Village. As Elsevier S&T Technology Director from 2002-2005, he was one of the initiators of Scopus, responsible for its publishing-technology connection. In 2006 he switched his focus as Technology Director to Elsevier’s Corporate Markets.

IJsbrand Jan was awarded a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Leiden. Over a decade as a research scientist at Philips Research in both The Netherlands and USA followed. Here IJsbrand Jan researched, published and patented topics on document retrieval models, implementation, the user interaction, and interactive route planning services.

Quote: “Dare to prototype – and to evaluate with your user community. Success often starts with interaction with your customer and knowing what’s just around the corner technologically. And don’t forget: small improvements can sometimes make huge differences – you just need to identify them by making the right connections between user needs and upcoming technologies.”