Sebastian Pfotenhauer

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT SEBASTIAN PFOTENHAUER

I am professor of innovation research and former head of Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS) at Technical University of Munich. As an STS scholar, I study innovation cultures, the inequalities and political economies of innovation, the governance of emerging technologies, and responsible innovation practices. I currently serve as speaker of the Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (M Cube), a EUR 50 Million flagship initiative on sustainable mobility innovation funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research. Previously, I also coordinated the EU-Horizon2020 project SCALINGS (“Scaling up co-creation: Avenues and Limits for Integrating Society in Science and Innovation”) – a EUR 4 Million European investigating use of new collaborative innovation formats such as living labs and pre-commercial procurement in robotics, autonomous driving, and urban energy systems. At TUM, I serve as academic director for the TUM Master’s program RESET (“Responsibility in Science, Engineering and Technology”). Before joining TU Munich, I was a research scientist and lecturer with the MIT Technology & Policy Program as well as a Fellow at the Harvard Program on Science, Technology and Society. My work has appeared, among other outlets, in Social Studies of Science, Research Policy, Nature, Science Technology & Human Values, and the OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook. I regularly serve as consultant to governments and international organizations. I hold an S.M. in Technology Policy from MIT and a PhD in Physics from the University of Jena, Germany, and have received post-doctoral training at MIT and Harvard.In my spare time, I enjoy traveling, co-running the queer-feminist bookstore glitch in Munich, and nerding out about all things justice+feminism+technology+politics.