Robert Hirschfeld is a Professor of Computer Science at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) and the Digital Engineering Faculty at the University of Potsdam and Chair of the Software Architecture Group. With his group, he investigates means of improving the overall programming experience for both professional and non-professional programmers. Hirschfeld is working on dynamic programming languages, development tools, and runtime environments to make interactive, live programming more approachable. His preferred environment for exploring ideas is Squeak/Smalltalk.

Hirschfeld served as a visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and The University of Tokyo, Japan. He was a senior researcher with DoCoMo Euro-Labs, where he worked on infrastructure components for next generation mobile communication systems with a focus on dynamic service adaptation and context-oriented programming. Prior to joining DoCoMo Euro-Labs, he was a principal engineer at Windward Solutions in Sunnyvale, California, where he designed and implemented distributed object systems, consulted in the area of object database technologies, and developed innovative software products and applications.

Hirschfeld received a PhD in Computer Science from Technische Universität Ilmenau.