Jennifer Tour Chayes is an academic and computer scientist who has served as Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Information since 2020, and as Associate Provost for Computing, Data Science, and Society. Before Berkeley she was a Technical Fellow and Managing Director at Microsoft Research New England (founded 2008) and Microsoft Research New York (founded 2012). She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was a co-lead of the California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models in 2025.
Roles
Chayes has been Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Information since 2020 and serves as Associate Provost for Computing, Data Science, and Society. Earlier in her career she was a Technical Fellow and Managing Director at Microsoft Research New England (founded 2008) and at Microsoft Research New York (founded 2012). She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and chairs the NAS Board on Mathematical Sciences and Applications.
Academic research
Chayes's research spans probabilistic combinatorics, statistical physics methods applied to computing, and network science. Her Microsoft Research-era work addressed random graphs, online algorithms, and mechanism design.
California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models
Chayes was a co-lead, with Fei-Fei Li and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, of the academic-policy working group that produced *The California Report on Frontier AI Policy* (June 2025). The report set out an academic framework for a transparency-first approach to frontier-AI governance and informed the enacted SB 53. Chayes's career path from Microsoft Research, an industrial advanced-research setting, to the Berkeley School of Information, an academic technology-policy center, has been described as the kind of academic-industrial bridging that underpinned the Working Group's role advising Governor Newsom.
Relationships
- supports: The California Report on Frontier AI Policy — co-lead.
- collaborates-with: Li Fei-Fei / Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar — Working Group co-leads.
- related: California SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI Act — SB 53's academic frame descends from the Working Group's report.
- related: Microsoft — former employer.
- related: AI Safety Cases and Frameworks — report's "trust but verify" framework.