Studying the governance, ethics, and social implications of artificial intelligence across policy, industry, and society.
Daniel S. Schiff is an Assistant Professor of Technology Policy in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University and founding Co-Director of GRAIL, the Governance and Responsible AI Lab. As a policy scientist with a background in philosophy, he studies the formal and informal governance of AI through policy and industry, along with AI’s broader social and ethical implications in domains including education, criminal justice, finance, and public administration.
His research spans four interconnected areas: AI governance and policy, where he examines agenda-setting, standards, and regulatory processes; AI ethics and measurement, including the emergence of ethics auditing and principles-to-practices gaps; deepfakes and synthetic media, through work on the Political Deepfakes Incidents Database and studies of misinformation dynamics; and education and institutional adoption, covering AI literacy, curriculum development, and organizational readiness. His work has been published in journals across disciplines, including the American Political Science Review, Management Science, Public Administration Review, the Policy Studies Journal, IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, and the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society.
Before academia, Daniel served as the founding Responsible AI Lead at JP Morgan Chase & Co. and as Secretary of the IEEE 7010-2020 standard, the first AI ethics industry standard focused on the impacts of AI on human well-being. His research and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, TIME, the Brookings Institution, The Conversation, and MIT Technology Review, and his work has informed policy efforts by the OECD, the European Parliament, Australia’s National Science Agency, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Daniel S. Schiff has mentored more than 30 students and postdoctoral fellows, several of whom have gone on to faculty positions and competitive postdoctoral fellowships. He studied Philosophy at Princeton University before completing an MS in Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Mentorship
Students & Mentees
Mentorship is the highlight of Daniel's professional work. Through GRAIL, he has had the privilege of working alongside more than 45 undergraduate students, MS/MA students, PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows, and he looks forward above all to seeing what they accomplish next. Too many students have gone on to do wonderful things to name them all — faculty positions, competitive postdoctoral fellowships, doctoral programs, and roles in the public and private sectors at leading institutions.
Recent Mentee Highlights
Christina Walker
PhD, Purdue→Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
Alex Wilhelm
PhD, Purdue→Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University
Bhargavi Ganesh
PhD, Univ. of Edinburgh→Postdoctoral Fellow, Accountable AI Lab, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
Emily Kim
PhD, Georgia Tech→Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), UC San Diego
Chee Hae Chung
Postdoc, Purdue→Postdoctoral Fellow, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School
Hanna Sistek
PhD, Purdue→Postdoctoral Fellow, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard
Yu Lu
UG, Purdue→MPP, UPenn SP2
→PhD, Purdue
Heonuk Ha
Postdoc, Univ. of Michigan→Tenure-Track Faculty, University of Texas at Dallas
Students & Postdocs
Postdoctoral Fellows (5)
Chee Hae Chung · Hanna Sistek · Vasundhara Kaul · Arne Bewersdorff · Heonuk Ha
MS/MA Students (4)
Anjali Bhati · Jack Wang · Hardik Amin · Emma Logevall
PhD Students (21)
Lucas Wiese · Indira Patil · James Prater · Cody Trebil · Bryan DeWitt · Jide Olugbade · Adriana Watson · Yunzhe Liu · Jae Woo Lee · Michael Kuczajda · Ogadinma Enwereazu · Chandler Robinson · Chloe Ahn · Sue Bae · Yaosheng Xu · Victor Amuzu · Selen Dogan Kosterit · Cory Alpert · Ibtihal Ferwana · Mazie Bernard · Marie Hornberger
▶Forecasting AI Risks and Impacts on the Workforce (FAIRWORK)29 contributors
Systematic literature review and empirical analysis of AI's impacts on labor and employment, in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University and the National University of Singapore.
▶Other GRAIL Affiliates & Independent Studies30+ members
Students affiliated with GRAIL through independent studies, course-based projects, external fellowships, or other forms of mentorship not tied to one of the flagship GRAIL labs.
Independent study / co-authored work
Yu Lu · Anant Gupta · Adam Hafez · Tejasi Raghprasad · Amrit Subramanian · Shely Dash · Josephine Bradley
Course- and program-based research
Paityn Freese · Donovan Luo · Deona Julary · Riya Padmonkar · Prisha Mungara · Stuthi Sunil · Ryan Rittner · Saahil Mathur · Nakshatra Tondepu · Sarah Mohapatra · Tri Vo · Priyanka Paradkar · Rayed Rahman · Annabel Brown
Fellowships & special programs
Noelia Alvarez · Haneen Azhar · Brian Song · Yu Lu · Parth Joshi · Shiva Shakouri · Anya Popa · Nick Berger · Tasneem Ahmed · Matthew Catani · Vedant Thakur · Keira Lavelle
Additional mentorship
Markian Hromiak · Zach Vogel
AI Policy Corner — public policy briefs reaching 17,000+ subscribers (Montréal AI Ethics Institute)
Vedant Thakur · Evan Glenn · Matthew Catani · Tasneem Ahmed · Teju Nallagundla · Alex Workman · Isadora Argenta · Erik Vitek · Ruth Sugiarto
Contact
Email is the best way to reach me. For collaboration inquiries or peer review questions, I aim to respond as quickly as possible. For media or press requests, please indicate urgency in your subject line — some requests require a faster turnaround than others.
Email:dschiff@purdue.edu Office: Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907