Asia J. Biega

I am a computer scientist and a tenure-track faculty member (W2) at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP). I am also a principal investigator of the Cluster of Excellence CASA and of the interdisciplinary and intersectoral consortium FINDHR.

At MPI-SP, I lead the interdisciplinary Responsible Computing group. To date, my team has included brilliant students, postdocs, and visitors with backgrounds ranging from Computer Science, Information Science, and Engineering to Psychology, Philosophy, Law, and Public Policy.

My team and I study questions at the intersection of computing & society, particularly in the context of data-driven systems. Our current research centers around developing, examining and computationally interpreting principles of responsible computing, data protection & governance, and digital well-being.

My work has been recognized with Council of Europe's Rodota Award for innovative research in data protection, Annual Privacy Forum's Best Paper Award, SaTML Notable Reviewer Award, and GI-DBIS Dissertation Award of the German Informatics Society. In 2025, I have been named one of the "100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics".

I often collaborate with scholars in law, philosophy, and social sciences, draw from my industry experience at Microsoft and Google, and share my expertise with policymakers, data protection authorities, artists, industry, and NGOs. I have served as an external expert for the European Commission and the General Co-Chair of ACM FAccT 2025, the biggest academic conference focusing on the societal impacts of computing. I am now a member of the FAccT Executive Committee.

Before joining MPI-SP, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research Montréal in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics in AI (FATE) Group. I completed my PhD in Computer Science at the MPI for Informatics, the MPI for Software Systems, and the Saarbrücken Graduate School of Computer Science. During my PhD, I also spent time in the USA (UMass Amherst) and Switzerland (Google Zurich). I grew up and studied computer science in Poland.