Heng Zheng

Heng Zheng is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) School of Information Sciences, mentored by Jodi Schneider, Bertram Ludäscher, and Karen Wickett. Starting August 2025, he will join the University of Kentucky as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Information Science. His research focuses on computational argumentation, explainable AI, legal informatics, and digital libraries, with a particular emphasis on addressing information disorder and improving scientific communication.

Educational Background: PhD in Artificial Intelligence (University of Groningen, 2024; advisors: Bart Verheij and Davide Grossi), MSc in Logic (Sun Yat-sen University, 2018), and BSc in Information Management (Dalian Maritime University, 2016).

Research Interests: Develops formal theories for case-based reasoning in legal and scientific contexts, explores computational methods to audit scientific publications, and investigates epistemic uncertainty in information dissemination. His work bridges AI, law, and information science to enhance transparency and reliability in knowledge systems.

Grants: Principal investigator on the $40k XAI-CA project (UIUC-Cardiff Collaboration) and co-recipient of IMLS and Sloan Foundation grants. Teaches Information Modeling and delivers guest lectures on argumentation in information systems. Actively reviews for journals like Studies in Logic and conferences such as ICAIL and iConference.

Key Achievements: Published 15+ peer-reviewed papers (including JCDL 2024 and iConference 2024), developed datasets on scientific retractions and legal reasoning, and contributes to open science initiatives. His work on computational argumentation frameworks (e.g., AF-Xray) and entity alignment using LLMs showcases innovative applications of AI in complex domains.