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Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pfotenhauer

STS Department Head
Associate Professor for Innovation Research
Program Coordinator, M.A. RESET

Innovation Research

I am currently on sabbatical leave until April 1, 2023. During this period, I will be slower than usual in responding to emails and occasionally not respond at all. I will also not accept (most) invitations for talks, paper reviews, committee work, thesis requests etc. Thank you for understanding.
  • For general inquiries related to research and teaching at the Innovation, Society and Public Policy (ISPP) research group, please contact Nadine Osbild ().
  • For administrative matters and formal authorizations related to ISPP finances and projects, please contact Ms. Manuela Keidel ().
  • For all STS teaching and course-related questions, please contact the SOT study program office () or the course instructors.
  • For Master’s thesis requests with ISPP, please check here and/or contact Johanna Hopp ().
  • For all MCube matters, please contact the managing director Oliver May-Beckmann () or project manager ().
  • For questions pertaining to the Transforming Mobility and Society (TraMS) research group, please contact Dr. Alexander Wentland ().
  • For all METAFORIS matters, please contact Dr. Zinaida Vasilyeva ().
  • For all matters concerning the Regional Innovation Cultures project, please contact Ms. Cindy Rentrop ().
  • For all BoostEuroTeq matters, please contact Dr. Carlos Cuevas ().
  • For the GoTransTech/iTRANSFORM innovation network, please contact Prof. Holger Patzelt ().
  • For all other matters, please contact the office of the School of Social Sciences and Technology ().

 

Sebastian Pfotenhauer is the Co-Director of the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS) and Carl von Linde Associate Professor for Innovation Research at Technical University of Munich. An MCTS and innovation policy scholar, he heads the Innovation, Society and Public Policy group co-located at MCTS and the TUM School of Management. Sebastian’s research interests include regional innovation cultures and strategies, the governance of emerging technologies, co-creation and responsible innovation practices, sustainable mobility transformations, and the critical political economy of innovation.

Sebastian is the coordinator of the Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (M Cube), a EUR 50 Million flagship initiative on sustainable mobility innovation, and serves as the coordinator of 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. He has also been the PI on several DFG funded, e.g. on Regional Innovation Cultures, Europe-making through research and innovation, and Technoscientific Constitutionalism.

Before joining TU Munich, he 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. He has served as consultant on innovation policy to various regional and national governments, as well as for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, France. His work has appeared, among other outlets, in Social Studies of Science, Research Policy, Nature, and Issues in Science and Technology. He holds an S.M. in Technology Policy from MIT, a PhD in Physics from the University of Jena, Germany, and has received post-doctoral training in MCTS and public policy at Harvard and MIT. In his spare time, Sebastian enjoys playing the violin, spending time in Mexico, and reading (for fun).

  • Innovation Cultures: Co-production of technoscientific and social/political order in the innovation society
  • Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
  • National, regional, and institutional innovation strategies
  • Global circulation and adoption of innovation models
  • Innovation and social responsibility
  • Complex international science, technology and innovation partnerships
  • Capacity-building in science, technology, higher education, innovation
  • Governance of complex sociotechnical systems

→ Current Course Offerings

  • Science and Democracy Network (SDN)
  • Society for the Social Studies of Science [4S]
  • European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
  • IEEE
  • ESYS2 – Energy Systems of the Future, Joint Project of the German Academies
  • Scientific Advisory Board – TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice
  • Project co-lead (MIT) for NSF Grant „Technology, Collaboration, Learning: Modeling Complex International Innovation Partnerships,“ 2013-2016
  • Project collaborator (Harvard) for NSF Grant „Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation: The practice turn and its transnational implementation,“ (2015-2017)
  • Leading Technology Policy Fellowship (MIT), MIT Technology & Policy Program (2010-2013)
  • Dissertation with distinction („Summa Cum Laude“)
  • MIT Education Excellence Award for graduation with 5.0 GPA
  • ERP Fellowship (European Recovery Program), German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy / German National Academic Foundation (2008-2010)
  • Undergraduate fellowship, Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst („Academic Foundation of the Protestant Churches“), (2000-2005).