Urs Gasser

Professor Urs Gasser is Professor of Public Policy, Governance and Innovative Technology, and serves as Rector of the Hochschule für Politik (HfP) and Dean of the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology. His research focuses on the societal and regulatory implications of new technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology..

Prior to his appointment as Inaugural Dean of the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Professor Urs Gasser served as Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School and from 2009-2021 as Executive Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Several of his research projects focus on the governance of rapidly evolving technologies such as Cloud Computing, the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence, with a particular interest in privacy and security issues and the broader implications of these technologies, including questions of agency, autonomy, and trust. Recently, much of his work focused on the promise and limitations of digital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative perspective. As a longer-term research interest, he studies the patterns of interaction between law and innovation, and innovation with the legal system in the digital age.

Professor Gasser has written and edited several books on digital technology issues, and published over 100 articles in professional journals. He is the co-author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Basic Books, 2008 and 2016, with John Palfrey), which has been translated into 10 languages (including Chinese), co-author of Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems (Basic Books, 2012, with John Palfrey). Recent book publications also include Remembering and Forgetting in the Digital Age (Springer, 2018, Co-Editor), Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics (Cambridge University Press, 2018, Co-Editor), and The Connected Parent (Basic Books 2020, with John Palfrey).

In addition to his responsibilities at TUM, Professor Gasser serves as an advisor, among others, to the OECD, and UNICEF. Furthermore, he is currently a member of the Colombian President's Commission of Experts on AI. He was also a Visiting Professor, among others, at KEIO University Japan, and Singapore Management University. Professor Gasser frequently acts as a commentator on digital technology, policy, and society issues for the US and European media.