Email: anna.haensch at wisc dot edu
Github: @annahaensch
LinkedIn: annahaensch
Substack: @extremefriday
Pronouns: she/her
My first name is pronounced "Ah-Nah" and my last name rhymes with "bench."
Anna Haensch holds a PhD in mathematics and is currently a Research Associate Professor at the Data Science Institute at University of Wisconsin - Madison and is the Associate Director of the Digital Scholarship Hub at the UW-Madison Libraries. Anna works on a broad and evolving set of problems at the intersection of AI, policy, and society. She is especially excited by work that combines mathematical rigor with real-world impact. Current projects span data center policy and the energy transition, optimal strategies under opinion dynamics, and connecting AI research to state and federal legislation. She is an Associate Editor for the American Mathematical Monthly and an affiliate of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy.
Anna Haensch holds a PhD in mathematics and is currently a Research Associate Professor at the Data Science Institute at University of Wisconsin - Madison and the Associate Director of the Digital Scholarship Hub at the UW Libraries. Prior to arriving at UW in Fall of 2025, she spent the year working in the office of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren as a AAAS Legislative Fellow focused on AI, emerging technology, and energy.
She researches a broad and evolving set of problems at the intersection of technology, policy, and society. Her current work is focused on AI data centers and energy, and she does much of this work alongside colleagues in the UW Data Center Working Group. Her primary question of interest is how we can simultaneously meet data center needs, deliver concrete benefits to the communities that host them, and maintain progress towards the renewable energy transition. She curates a map of Wisconsin data center developments. Her work on renewable energy is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
In 2013 she was awarded a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship which she spent working on the science desk at National Public Radio in Washington, DC. Prior to her present position, Anna also held a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Germany, was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Duquesne University, and held the position of Data Scientist and Provost Lecturer at Tufts University. She is an Associate Editor for the American Mathematical Monthly and an affiliate of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy.
For a really long account of where I've been, you might enjoy this essay that I wrote for the American Mathematical Monthly about my journey from theoretical mathematics to where I am today.