Biography

Sebastian Ramirez-Ruiz is a Research Associate at the Hertie School Data Science Lab in Berlin. His research applies tools from computational social science to study how policymakers engage with academic research and how scientific evidence informs public decision-making. His dissertation draws on several large-scale empirical projects, combining diverse data sources—from online behavioural traces to legislative records—with advanced computational and causal inference methods to examine the conditions under which policymakers interact with research and expertise. His broader interests include causal inference, measurement, opinion and preference formation, and the role of evidence in democratic governance.

As a Max Weber Fellow, he plans to further investigate policymaker–researcher interactions across digital and institutional settings. He also aims to contribute to the Expert Knowledge and Authority in Transformative Times cluster and the broader programme’s academic community through his expertise in computational and quantitative methods—including automated data collection, statistical modelling, and causal inference—and his commitment to collaboration, multidisciplinarity, and open science. He has extensive experience teaching data science, programming, and causal inference to both students and policymakers, and is passionate about bridging technical expertise with policy practice.

Mentor

• Kevin, Munger

Mentor

• Simon, Hix