Blase Ur

Blase Ur is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago. He founded the UChicago SUPERgroup, an interdisciplinary research collective whose research spans computer security, privacy, ethical AI, and human-computer interaction (HCI). The SUPERgroup is especially interested in developing data-driven methods and tools that support users’ security and privacy decisions, as well as their interactions with complex computer systems. The group’s work has been supported by nine National Science Foundation grants, as well as grants from Mozilla Research, Meta, Google, and the Data Transparency Lab.

Blase (whose name is pronounced “blaze”; he/him pronouns) has received the Quantrell Award for Undergraduate Teaching (2021), NSF CAREER Award (2021), SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award (2018), and a Fulbright Scholarship (2010). His work has received four best/distinguished paper awards, as well as five honorable mentions for best paper. He earned a PhD in 2016 from Carnegie Mellon University’s Societal Computing program, where he was advised by Lorrie Cranor, and an AB in computer science from Harvard University in 2007. He is also a musician, photographer, (theatre) designer, and avid bicyclist.