Prof.dr. Ronald Leenes (1964) is full professor in regulation by technology at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (Tilburg University).
His primary research interests are regulation by (and of) technology, specifically related to privacy and identity management. He is also motivated and trying to understand the effects of profiling, function creep and privacy infringements in general. A growing area of interest in his portfolio is the potential and negative effects of Big Data Analytics.
He currently leads different research teams in the fields of accountability in cloud computing, legal and ethical aspects of robotic technologies, and privacy-enhancing identity management. He is also involved in research in profiling, privacy accidents in the public sector, cyber security, e-government and function creep.
He was a core member of the management team of the EU FP6 PRIME project, the EU FP7 projects PrimeLife and ENDORSE. He was work package leader in these projects and has contributed significantly to the research within these projects.
Ronald is principal investigator and TILT project coordinator in the EU FP7 project Robolaw which looks at the ethical and legal issues of robotics, human enhancement and neurosciences.
He is also principal investigator and TILT project coordinator in the EU FP7 project A4Cloud, which addresses the accountability gap in cloud computing. His focus here is stakeholder concerns, legal aspects and conceptual modeling.
From 2012 , Ronald is academic director of the Privacy & Identity lab (PI.lab), a joint venture of Tilburg University, Radboud University Nijmegen, TNO, and SIDN.
He has contributed to and edited various deliverables for the EU FP6 Network of Excellence ‘Future of IDentity in the Information Society’ (FIDIS), and he participated in the Network of Excellence ‘Legal Framework for the Information Society’ (LEFIS).
He has extensive experience in management of international associations. He was Secretary of IFIP WG 8.5 ‘Information Systems in Public Administration’ and secretary/treasurer of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and law (IAAIL).
He was member of the programme commission of various international conferences in different fields, such as E-government, AI and Law, and in 2008, the conference “TILTing perspectives on regulating technology’.
Ronald has an extensive international network of top-scholars in Europe, Canada, and the US, both within academia and in industry, which he involves in TILT’s work.
Ronald has a background in Public Administration and Public Policy (University of Twente) and has extensive research experience in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Law, E-Government and since he joined TILT, technology (primarily ICTs) and law.
Ronald is a productive researcher with a large number of international publications in books and (refereed) journals and refereed conference volumes.
He was a member of the Advisory group on social implications of IT of ICT-Regie, the Netherlands ICT Research and Innovation Authority.
He is an experienced and inspiring teacher with a drive to innovate courses and teaching. He teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Former research fields include ID-fraud, nano-technology, e-government, online dispute resolution, AI and Law.