Jake Gao explores how legal institutions can make urban mobility safer, cleaner, more accessible, and more equitable, and how insights from urban mobility can enrich the study of law. His research projects include experimentally testing the potential impact of the biases of civil jurors on the adoption of autonomous vehicles, describing a process for making algorithmic law that accounts for the spatial implications and interactive effects of individual behavior, and measuring the role of normative motivations for compliance with the law. He has applied his background in law in his work with the Chicago Transit Authority on facilitating bus electrification and cultivating a healthier electric bus market in the United States.

Jake holds a JD from Columbia Law School and is a member of the New York State bar. He also has an MS in Transportation from MIT and a BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University.

Jake graduated in 2024. He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law.