About
I created this website to put together the different threads that characterise my professional life.
Just like those mountains, my work has multiple facets, foundations, areas for long-term expeditions and peaks or caves for further exploration.
So, dear reader, here is an overview of what I do!
Please reach out to me if you want to talk more: mxm(dot)stauffer(at)gmail(dot)com
Values and beliefs
I perceive work as the instrument that allows me to bring about more of what I value. What are my values? My moral compass is broadly construed around consequentialism, longtermism and a set of virtues such as using reason, learning continusouly and being a principled actor whenever possible. I find the framework of resilience useful to think about preserving our world and generating value. I believe that political institutions, such as governments and international organizations, are essential in fostering resilience across the globe and over long time scales.
Domains
I work at the intersection of long-term governance, science & technology, and complexity science. Most of what I currently do is here: https://www.simoninstitute.ch/blog/
Past and current positions
2021-Present - Co-founder & CEO at Simon Institute for Longterm Governance
2023-2024 - Member, Global Future Council on Complex Risks – World Economic Forum
2022-2023 - Consultant, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
2022-2023 - Senior Visiting Fellow at Center for Policy Research, United Nations University
2020-2022 - Research Fellow at Geneva Transformative Governance Lab, University of Geneva
2020-Present- Board member at Effective Altruism Geneva
2019-2022 - Senior Science-policy Officer at the Geneva Science-Policy Interface, University of Geneva
2018-Present - Founding Partner at Social Complexity Lab
2018-2019 - Steering committee member & adviser at European Commission's Joint Research Centre
2017-2019 - Co-founder & Research Director at Effective Altruism Geneva
2017-2019 - Researcher at Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
I happily advise students and young professionals on their research or policy careers. I review academic work for publishing houses.
Education
I hold a BA in International Relations with a specialization in political science (2014-2017).
I have spent a lot of time self-teaching programming, statistics and modelling.
I'm pursuing a part-time degree in Computational Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University.