Neil Thurman is professor of Communication with an emphasis on Computational Journalism in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Research, LMU Munich. He holds a Freigeist Fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung) for a project on 'Algorithmic News'.

He is also a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at City, University of London where, between 2006–2015, he led an Erasmus Mundus Master's in Journalism, Media and Globalisation. He was appointed as City's first lecturer in Electronic Publishing in 1997 and directed their successful Master's in Electronic Publishing until 2004.

His research focuses on the changes taking place in news production and consumption as a result of the internet.