Jan Sürmeli is joint professor for Digital Identity at the University of Potsdam. His research and teaching focus on topics relating to trust, autonomy and privacy in the connected world.

After completing his doctorate in computer science at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Jan Sürmeli worked as a post-doc at the Humboldt University of Berlin and later also at the Technical University of Berlin from 2015, and temporarily as a consultant.

In 2019, he began working as a research associate at the FZI Research Center for Information Technology. From 2021 to 2023, he headed the department “Strategic and Interdisciplinary Projects” inside the “Innovation, Strategy, Transfer” research division. Since 2023, he is Senior Expert Digital Identity and Trust in the research division “Software Engineering”. In May 2025 he was jointly appointed as as Professor by the University of Potsdam and FZI.

He is co-speaker of the working group "Digitale Identitäten in der Verwaltung" of the NEGZ – Kompetenznetzwerk Digitale Verwaltung. In addition to his professional activities, Jan Sürmeli is involved in the GI Gesellschaft für Informatik.