Kosuke Imai

Kosuke Imai is a Professor in the Department of Government and Department of Statistics at Harvard University. He is also an affiliate of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Previously, he was a faculty member at Princeton University for 15 years, where he founded the Program in Statistics and Machine Learning. During the 2024-2025 academic year, he is on sabbatical at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

• Education: PhD in Political Science from Harvard University (2005)
• Appointment: Professor (2018-present) at Harvard

Imai specializes in statistical and machine learning methods for social science research. His work spans causal inference, computational social science, survey methodology, and policy learning. Recent focuses include heterogeneous treatment effects with high-dimensional data, algorithmic redistricting, and fairness analysis using generative AI.

His research has produced 15+ recent articles in top journals like the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of the American Statistical Association, and Political Analysis. Topics include AI-assisted decision-making, racial disparity estimation, and spatiotemporal causal modeling. He also develops open-source software tools such as FindIt and redist for causal analysis.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2024)
  • Political Analysis Editors' Choice Award (2011)
  • Tom Ten Have Memorial Award (2013)

Contact: imai@harvard.edu | Office: CGIS Knafel Building, Room 306, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138