An asian woman with a big smile on her face and a wooden color background.

Hello there! Thanks for thinking I'm interesting enough to check up on. If you've come this far, I encourage you to say hello before you leave :)

My name is Yixin Zou (pronounced "Yee-Shin Zoh"). I am a tenure-track faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum, Germany, where I lead the Human-Centered Security and Privacy group. I am also a principal investigator at the CASA Cluster of Excellence at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). My CV is available here.

I study questions at the intersection of human-computer interaction and usable privacy & security. My group's current research centers around empowering end users to have more literacy and agency over their personal data when interacting with socio-technical systems, with a particular focus on marginalized and underserved populations.

Before joining MPI-SP, I earned my Ph.D. in Information at the University of Michigan, advised by Florian Schaub. My PhD dissertation was recognized by an ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award.

If you are interested in joining our group, or if you are seeking any form of advising or collaboration, please read this page first before reaching out to me.

Selected Honors and Awards

Updates

  • Jul 2024 I will be attending PETS 2025! Let me know if you would like to meet up for coffee/tea/exploring Bristol :)
  • Feb 2024 Very happy that my doctoral dissertation won a SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award! Big thanks to my PhD advisor, committee members, collaborators and study participants, friends and family, and everyone else that accompanied me through this journey.