Ronaldo Lemos (林纳德)

About

Ronaldo Lemos is a lawyer, professor, and public intellectual recognized internationally for shaping digital and innovation policy. He is the architect of Brazil’s Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet), a landmark law that established net neutrality, privacy, and freedom of expression as guiding principles. Lemos holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of São Paulo. He has served as Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (2017–2020) and at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University (2020–2022), and has held research appointments at MIT, Princeton, and Oxford. He is the Founder and Chief Scientist of the Institute for Technology & Society of Rio (ITS Rio), one of Latin America’s leading educational and research institutes on technology and society. In 2025, Lemos co-authored Brazil’s first comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Law, enacted in the state of Goiás. The law establishes a pioneering framework by prioritizing open-source AI models, integrating AI education into public schools, and creating regulatory sandboxes for experimentation. It also links AI to development by incentivizing renewable energy–powered data centers. Lemos serves on the boards of Meta’s Oversight Board, Spotify’s Safety Advisory Council, the Stellar Development Foundation, and the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro. He is also a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's most prominent newspaper, and the creator and host of Expresso Futuro, a documentary series on global innovation that won the Sichuan TV Festival Gold Panda Award (2019). Earlier in his career, he co-founded Overmundo, a groundbreaking collaborative platform that received the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica (2007). Currently, Lemos is advising the presidency of COP30 on the role of technology for climate. With over two decades of experience across academia, government, the private sector, and media, his work continues to architect how to navigate the intersection of technology, governance, and innovation.