Dirk HOMMRICH

Is a philosopher, sociologist, and theorist of technology based at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. He did his PhD within the interdisciplinary graduate school “Topology of Technology” of the German Research Foundation DFG at TU Darmstadt, and broadened his academic perspective as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Anthropology and the Science and Technology Studies (STS) program at UC Davis, USA.
For him, philosophy is both a critical practice and societal commitment. His 2019 monograph Theatrum cerebri—a work of STS and social philosophy—reads the visual culture of popular brain research through media theory and the genealogy of neuroscience, revealing how brain images have shaped public understandings of selfhood. He is the co-author of a 2025 opinion paper in Nature Medicine on the ethical challenges of neural implant abandonment, and—together with Christoph Kehl and Christopher Coenen—he is currently conducting a study for the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB), examining the development of neuroelectric interfaces over the last ten years and potential future directions.
This range of interests extends into policy. As a Science Policy Advisor at the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures (RfII), in charge of the remit on international and European developments, he has translated his interdisciplinary thinking into data governance recommendations. As a member of CODATA’s Data Ethics Task Group and a board member of the Institute for the Study of Culture Heidelberg since 2023, he works, among other topics, on Applied Ethics. Moreover, he was also a member of Retina International’s Education Hub 2025/2026, equipping retina patients’ advocates with knowledge across the ophthalmology research and policy landscape. Hommrich’s career and engagement are shaped by a comprehensive commitment to bridging critical thinking with real-world impact.