Introducing new staff

Aimen Taimur is a legal postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) and the AI, Media and Democracy Lab. She works on the TACIT project, Inclusive Technologies for Access and Social Participation, where she examines how legal and regulatory frameworks can support AI-enabled inclusion, accessibility and meaningful social participation. Her broader work is situated at the intersection of artificial intelligence governance, safety and fundamental rights, with a focus on autonomy, accountability and the distribution of technological risks.

Aimen completed her doctoral research at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT), where she examined legal responses to AI-enabled manipulation and the protection of cognitive freedom. Her work also engages with artificial intelligence in information environments, including synthetic content, disinformation, information warfare and psychological operations, as well as neuroethics and the governance of brain-computer interfaces, especially where these technologies raise questions concerning cognitive freedom.

Alongside her academic work, Aimen is a licensed lawyer in Pakistan and has worked across legal and policy settings on questions concerning technology regulation, human rights, disinformation and emerging technologies. She has also completed training in open-source intelligence (OSINT), with a focus on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and Domestic Information Manipulation and Interference (DIMI).”

Sofia Zampedri is a PhD Candidate in European Law of Sustainable Digital Infrastructure at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) and the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG), Amsterdam Law School, University of Amsterdam. Working under the supervision of Dr. Kristina Irion and Dr. Kati Cseres, her research examines how European law shapes the social, democratic, and environmental sustainability of digital infrastructures, exploring the legal tensions that arise at the intersection of digitalisation and sustainability. Her project is part of the Sectorplan initiative ‘Democratic Digital Transition’.

Sofia holds a dual LLM from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in International Technology Law and in International Business Law: Climate Change and Corporations, both awarded cum laude, as well as a cum laude LLB in Law in Society. She was valedictorian of both her bachelor’s and her business law master’s programmes. Her research interests include international and European climate law, and the legal and ethical governance of emerging technologies.

Before joining the University of Amsterdam, Sofia worked as a legal research assistant at the Center for International Criminal Justice and, since 2022, has contributed to educational innovation and AI in education at the VU Centre for Teaching and Learning. She was awarded the VU Student Talent Award 2024–2025.