Lucas Leemann

Lucas Leemann is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Zürich, affiliated with the Philosophische Fakultät. His research focuses on democratic institutions, representation, and data science, with a particular emphasis on direct democracy, political participation, and methodology. Leemann holds a PhD from Columbia University and has held academic positions at the University of Essex and University College London. He is the lead editor of the British Journal of Political Science and co-leads the largest online poll in Switzerland.

Education: PhD in Political Science (Columbia University, 2014), lic. rer. soc. in Political Science (University of Bern, 2008). Teaching responsibilities include courses on political participation, data journalism, and computational methods. His work has been recognized with awards such as the ECPR Best Paper Prize (2020) and the Lawrence Longley Award (2015).

Research interests span direct democracy’s impact on policy alignment, youth voter engagement, and innovative survey methodologies like multilevel regression with post-stratification (MrP). He has published in top journals including the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, and Political Analysis.

Leemann leads the CATALYSE EU Horizon project and has secured grants totaling over CHF 800,000. His applied work includes designing surveys for media and academic collaborations, emphasizing data-driven approaches to political questions.