Yunxiang Yan is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His work focuses on China and Cultural Anthropology , with specific expertise in Economic Anthropology , Family and Kinship , and Individualization . Education: Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University (1993). Yan’s research explores the intersection of social change , moral theory , and family dynamics in modern China. His ethnographic studies in rural villages provide foundational insights into exchange theory and cultural globalization . Recent publications analyze food safety , medical ethics , and moral crises in China, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach combining anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. Articles span themes like intergenerational intimacy , political oppression , and networked social structures . Scientific Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship Levenson Prize-winning Research Yan’s work bridges local Chinese studies with global anthropological discourse. He has held positions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Johns Hopkins University, and UCLA since 1996. His career reflects a commitment to documenting the lives of ordinary people, rooted in his early experiences as an expelled villager during Maoist China. Contact: yan@anthro.ucla.edu
Nicholas Evans is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University. He is an ARC Laureate Fellow and serves as Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL), reflecting his leadership in integrating typology, descriptive linguistics, and cognitive science. His work spans linguistic diversity, endangered languages, and the interplay between language and culture. His research focuses on Australian and Papuan languages, with extensive fieldwork in remote communities. Key interests include linguistic typology, historical and contact linguistics, semantics, and the cognitive underpinnings of grammar. He has published foundational grammars and dictionaries of Kayardild, Bininj Gun-wok, and Dalabon, contributing significantly to the documentation of endangered languages. His recent publications reveal a strong trend in cross-linguistic studies of social cognition (SCOPIC), syntactic typology, and phylogenetic modeling of the Yam languages. These works integrate linguistic, cognitive, and genetic data, highlighting interdisciplinary approaches to understanding language evolution and human diversity. ARC Laureate Fellow Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) Evans supervises research students and leads major projects such as 'The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity' and CoEDL, which involve extensive collaboration across institutions and disciplines. His grants include modeling Pacific creoles and phonemic analysis of Tok Pisin. He is also involved in digital archiving initiatives like PARADISEC and the Language Data Commons of Australia, ensuring long-term preservation of linguistic data. He leads and contributes to research teams focused on Southern New Guinea languages, paradigm syncretisms (PARABANK), and cultural heritage preservation. His work emphasizes reciprocal engagement with speech communities and training the next generation of language documenters.
Professor David A Palmer is a distinguished academic jointly appointed by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, where he has been teaching since 2008. His interdisciplinary work bridges anthropology, sociology, religious studies, and Sinology, establishing him as a leading scholar in Chinese religious studies and transnational religious movements. Palmer's educational background includes a PhD in Anthropology of Religion from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne, Paris), an MPhil in Clinical Psychology/Medical Anthropology from University of Paris-VIII, and a BA in Anthropology and East Asian Studies from McGill University. His scholarly contributions span multiple disciplines with particular emphasis on Chinese religious traditions and their global manifestations. His research interests focus on the anthropology and sociology of spirituality and religion, especially Daoism and Chinese religion; religion in modern and contemporary China; inter-Asian and transnational religious circulations; Baháʼí Faith; civil society, volunteering, philanthropy, community engagement; and cultural and religious interactions on the Belt and Road. His work examines how religious traditions navigate modernity, state power, and globalization, with particular attention to the Belt and Road Initiative's cultural dimensions. Palmer's publications reveal a consistent focus on understanding Chinese religious traditions within broader theoretical frameworks of social theory, civil society, and transnational religious networks. His articles demonstrate how Chinese religious practices and institutions both adapt to and shape contemporary social and political contexts, with particular attention to the intersections of spirituality, modernity, and state-society relations. Joseph Levenson Award of the Association for Asian Studies PROSE award of the American Publishers' Association Francis L.K. Hsu Award of the Society for East Asian Anthropology Edward Bruner Prize for the best book in Anthropology of Tourism HK Research Grants Council RGC Research Fellowship (2021-2025) HK Research Grants Council Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship (2019) Palmer currently leads multiple significant research projects including 'Global China, Local Cultures: Chinese Modernity and Soft Power on the Belt and Road' (RGC Research Fellowship, 2021-2025), 'Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road' (CRF, 2019-2023), 'Rituals and Manuscripts of the Lanten Yao (Laos)' (GRF, 2021-2024), and 'Religious Cosmopolitanism in China, 1895-1927' (GRF, 2021-2024). He leads the 'Asian Religious Connections' research cluster at HKIHSS, co-convenes the 'Culture, Community and Social Equity' research cluster in the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, and serves as co-convenor of the HKU Anthropology Research Network. As President of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, he plays a key role in advancing scholarly understanding of religion in the region.
Mari Ostendorf serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering within the College of Engineering at the University of Washington, where she conducts research at the intersection of speech technology and computational linguistics with emphasis on spontaneous speech phenomena. Her educational foundation includes: PhD in an unspecified field, Stanford University (1985) Her research program systematically investigates: Speech Processing: Specializing in spontaneous speech characteristics and prosodic modeling Natural Language Processing: Focusing on conversational speech parsing and stance analysis Computational Linguistics: Integrating linguistic theory with machine learning approaches Prosody: Analyzing idiosyncratic speech patterns for language processing applications Stance Recognition: Developing computational methods for identifying speaker attitude and commitment Her work manifests in significant projects including the LiCORICE Project (2009-2011) as Principal Investigator and the ATAROS Project as Co-Principal Investigator, both advancing automatic spoken language processing through detailed modeling of speech prosody and stance phenomena. Analysis of her publication record reveals a consistent trajectory toward interdisciplinary integration of linguistic theory and machine learning for spoken language understanding, with particular emphasis on non-lexical cues and discourse markers in conversational contexts that bridge computational and cognitive approaches to language processing. No scientific awards were mentioned in the provided documentation. Her advising record includes PhD candidates Jeremy Kahn (2010 dissertation on conversational speech parsing) and Esther Le Grézause (2017 dissertation on stance expression). Her grant portfolio features the LiCORICE Project (2009-2011, PI with Emily M. Bender and Mark Zachry) and the ATAROS Project (Co-PI with Richard Wright and Gina Levow), demonstrating sustained research funding in speech technology. Her research operates within an interdisciplinary framework connecting computer science and linguistics, evidenced by collaborations spanning departments and contributions to dissertation defenses in the Linguistics program at the University of Washington.
Ching Kwan Lee is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her work focuses on global and comparative issues, including labor politics, political sociology, decolonization, and the dynamics of Chinese capitalism. She is renowned for her trilogy on Chinese labor and global expansion, including Gender and the South China Miracle , Against the Law , and The Specter of Global China . Lee has also authored groundbreaking studies on Hong Kong’s decolonization struggles and African-China relations. Education: PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Research Interests : Globalization and its social impacts Comparative labor movements and protest dynamics Decolonization and postcolonial state formations Sino-African economic and labor relations Hong Kong’s political trajectory and transnational activism Her recent work explores resistance to 'global China,' including mass mobilizations in Hong Kong documented in Forever Hong Kong: A Global City’s Decolonization Struggle (2025). She co-edits the Cambridge Elements in Global China and leads the Global Hong Kong Studies @UC initiative. Awards & Recognition : 2024 Distinguished Career in Political Sociology Award Multiple book prizes for The Specter of Global China Fellowships at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study and Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study Grants & Initiatives : Lead researcher on NSF grants studying platform capitalism and labor in China Initiated comparative projects on Brazil, India, China, and South Africa ( Southern Interregnum ) Co-editor of volumes on Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and global labor studies
Nicholas Evans is Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL) at the Australian National University’s School of Culture, History & Language. His work bridges fieldwork-based language documentation with theoretical questions in typology, cultural evolution, and social cognition. Focus on endangered Australian and Papuan languages Director of ARC Laureate Project on 'The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity' Co-leader of SCOPIC (Social Cognition Parallax Corpus) study Collaborator in global linguistic diversity initiatives His research explores how micro-level community multilingualism shapes macro-level linguistic diversity, with fieldwork spanning seven years in remote Indigenous communities. Recent projects include PARABANK (paradigm syncretism analysis) and Southern New Guinea language studies, particularly Nen and Yam family languages. Scientific recognition includes the Ken Hale Award (Linguistic Society of America), Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis, and fellowships in the Australian Academy of Humanities, Australian Social Sciences Academy, and the British Academy.
Mark Y. Liberman is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Computer and Information Science. His roles include Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), Faculty Director of Ware College House, and former Director of the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science. Education: A.B. in Linguistics and Applied Mathematics from Harvard University (1965–1969), M.S. (1972) and Ph.D. (1975) in Linguistics from MIT. Research focuses on corpus-based phonetics, clinical linguistics applications, tonal phonology, formal models for linguistic annotation, and computational linguistics. He explores speech production, prosody, and interdisciplinary topics like language evolution and neurobiology of speech. Recent articles highlight advancements in speech biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, autism analysis, and computational linguistics. Awards include Fellowships from the AAAS and Linguistic Society of America. He advises graduate students and leads large-scale language resource initiatives like LDC, contributing to open-access linguistic datasets. Labs/Teams: Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), Institute for Research in Cognitive Science (IRCS), and collaborations in computational linguistics and neuroscience.
Dr. Corey T. Callaghan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida . Based at the Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center , his research focuses on global change ecology using big data from citizen science platforms like eBird and iNaturalist, combined with geospatial analyses and macroecological theory . Ph.D. (2019) from UNSW Sydney M.S. (2015) from Florida Atlantic University B.S. + B.S. (2013) from Canisius College His work examines urban ecology , including how species traits influence urban tolerance across birds, amphibians, and butterflies. He develops adaptive sampling frameworks to optimize citizen science data collection while addressing biases. Current projects analyze human-nature interactions through citizen science participation, secondary data in photographs, and machine learning for biodiversity monitoring. He actively contributes to conservation strategies for urban biodiversity and data-driven restoration efforts . Recent publications highlight his expertise in cross-taxa comparisons , continental-scale analyses , and ecosystem service quantification . He leads the Global Ecology Research Group at the University of Florida, emphasizing collaborative science and open-source methodologies .
Joseph A. November is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina, affiliated with the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the history of biomedical computing, distributed computing, and the intersection of technology and medicine. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University (2006), an M.A. from the University of Chicago (2002), and a B.A. from Hamilton College (1997). His work includes the award-winning book Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States (2012), which explores the co-development of biomedicine and computing technologies. Current projects include Revolutions@home , examining distributed computing in protein folding research, and a biography of computing pioneer Robert S. Ledley. He has received grants from the NSF, NIH, and the Charles Babbage Institute. Teaching interests span the history of science and technology, including courses on the history of medicine, digital humanities, and the role of games in historical education. He actively contributes to professional organizations like SHOT and the History of Science Society. Awards include the Computer History Museum Prize (2013) and the National Institutes of Health DeWitt Stetten Fellowship (2007-2008). His research bridges historical analysis with contemporary issues in technology and biomedical ethics.
David Silver is a Professor of Computer Science at University College London and Principal Research Scientist at DeepMind, leading the Reinforcement Learning Research Group. His pioneering work in deep reinforcement learning has revolutionized artificial intelligence through breakthroughs in computer game-playing algorithms. His educational background includes: Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Cambridge University (1997, 2000) PhD in Computer Science from the University of Alberta (2009) Silver specializes in deep reinforcement learning where algorithms learn through trial-and-error in interactive environments. His research combines deep neural networks with reinforcement learning strategies to solve complex decision-making problems. He is renowned for developing AlphaGo (defeating Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016), AlphaZero (mastering Chess, Shogi and Go through self-play), and AlphaStar (conquering Starcraft II). His work demonstrates unprecedented generality in game-playing AI and has catalyzed industry-wide adoption of reinforcement learning techniques. Analysis of his publications reveals a consistent trajectory toward self-supervised learning systems. His 2015-2016 Nature papers established foundational architectures combining neural networks with Monte Carlo tree search, shifting the field from human-data dependency toward pure self-play methodologies. This evolution enabled superhuman performance across diverse game domains while minimizing domain-specific knowledge. His scientific awards include: ACM Prize in Computing (2019) for breakthrough advances in computer game-playing Marvin Minsky Medal (2018) for outstanding achievements in AI Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal (2017) for UK engineering contributions Mensa Foundation Prize (2017) for best AI scientific discovery Silver's research has generated significant real-world impact beyond gaming, including optimizing the UK power grid, reducing Google data center energy consumption, and planning European Space Agency probe trajectories. While not explicitly documented in advising roles, his leadership at DeepMind fosters collaborative research environments that train next-generation AI scientists through high-impact projects. As lead of DeepMind's Reinforcement Learning Research Group, Silver directs cutting-edge work extending deep reinforcement learning to robotics, complex real-world systems, and multi-agent environments. Current initiatives focus on transferring game-playing breakthroughs to industrial automation and scientific discovery applications.
Marlyse Baptista is the President's Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics. She is affiliated with the School of Arts & Sciences and MindCore initiative. Her research focuses on language contact, creolization processes, bilingualism, and experimental methods in creole studies. Baptista leads the Language Contact and Cognition Lab, previously known as the Cognition, Convergence and Language Emergence (CCLE) group at the University of Michigan. Education includes a PhD in Linguistics (Harvard, 1997), MA degrees from Harvard and the Université de Bordeaux III, and extensive training in multilingual education. Her work bridges generative syntax with experimental approaches, including artificial language learning to study language convergence. Key themes include the cognitive underpinnings of creole formation, bidirectional influences in Cape Verdean Creole, and the role of congruence in language acquisition. Research highlights include studies on Cape Verdean Creole's grammatical properties, genetic-linguistic admixture correlations, and pedagogical resources for creole language education. Recent projects explore experimental validation of creole genesis theories through multilingual acquisition studies. Scientific Awards: President's Distinguished Professorship (University of Pennsylvania) Labs/Teams: Language Contact and Cognition Lab, MindCore Grants/Projects: MULTI Project (creole language educational resources), NSF-funded studies on creole genesis mechanisms Baptista's work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, integrating syntax theory, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics to address foundational questions in contact linguistics and creolistics.
Kai-Wei Chang is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Computer Science, part of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. He is also an Amazon Scholar at Alexa AI, focusing on advancing trustworthy AI and multimodal foundation models. His research bridges NLP, machine learning, and ethical AI, with a focus on fairness, robustness, and bias mitigation in language and vision-language systems. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science (UIUC, 2015), M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University. Research Interests: Trustworthy NLP (fairness, robustness), Multimodal Foundation Models (e.g., VisualBERT, GLIP), Reasoning in LLMs, and mitigating societal biases in AI systems. Notable contributions include pioneering work on aligning NLP models with human values and developing SOTA multimodal models like DesCo and GLIP. Awards: Sloan Research Fellowship (2021), Okawa Grant (2018), EMNLP Best Paper (2017), KDD Best Paper (2010). His work is funded by NSF, IARPA, ONR, and industry partners like Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Service: VP-Elect of SIGDAT, Ethics Committee Chair (NAACL 2022), Organizer of Trustworthy NLP Workshops, and Senior Area Chair for top conferences (ACL, NeurIPS, AAAI). Labs/Teams: Leads the UCLA Natural Language Processing Group, fostering interdisciplinary research on ethical AI and multimodal systems.
Amanda Phillips is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University, affiliated with the Departments of English, Film and Media Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and American Studies. Their research focuses on feminist and queer theory in digital media, with a particular emphasis on critical game studies and digital humanities. Selected publications include Gamer Trouble: Feminist Confrontations in Digital Culture and co-editing the Queer/Trans/Digital book series. Their scholarship appears in journals such as ROMchip , Feminist Media Histories , and Games and Culture . Research Interests: Digital media and gender politics Queer theory in gaming contexts Decolonial and anti-racist digital humanities Critical analysis of game mechanics Digital labor and precarity Affective histories of gaming Scientific Awards: Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow Academic Leadership: Former chair of the American Studies Association Digital Humanities Caucus Co-founder of the #transformDH Collective Editorial work on special issues of Game Studies and Antares: Letras e Humanidades Previous Institutions: IMMERSe Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Davis Ph.D. recipient from University of California, Santa Barbara with emphasis in Feminist Studies
Jerrica Ty Rowlett serves as an Assistant Professor of Communication and Language Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences at Bryant University, where she examines digital communication's societal implications through research and teaching in digital culture and social media dynamics. Education Ph.D., Florida State University M.A., Clemson University B.A., Georgetown College Her research program investigates identity formation, civic engagement, and digital inequity through critical analysis of social media platforms. She explores how digital environments shape interpersonal relationships, political discourse, and community building while addressing power dynamics in online spaces, with particular attention to abusive contexts, gender representation, and emotional experiences. Analysis of her publication record (2015-2024) reveals a consistent trajectory examining social media's evolving societal impact. Early work focused on educational applications and youth culture, progressing to sophisticated analyses of political meme culture, relationship dissolution in abusive contexts, and emotional contagion online. Her scholarship demonstrates increasing attention to social justice dimensions within digital communication. Scientific Awards No awards documented in current sources Advising and Grants Student advising details and research grant information are not specified in available materials, though her extensive publication record indicates active scholarly mentorship and research productivity. Labs and Teams No dedicated research laboratories or formal collaborative teams are mentioned in the provided information.
Mark Post is a Senior Lecturer and Honours Coordinator in the Discipline of Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney. He also serves as Deputy Head of School (Humanities) and is affiliated with the China Studies Centre, Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, and The Vere Gordon Childe Centre. His educational background includes a BA Hons from Wesleyan University, an MA from the University of Oregon, and a PhD from La Trobe University. Dr. Post's research focuses on describing and explaining the typologies and relationships among Greater Mainland Southeast Asian and Himalayan languages. His descriptive work relies exclusively on primary field data, with interests in improving fieldwork methodologies. He approaches linguistic explanation from a functional-diachronic perspective, viewing language as a dynamic process whose structures emerge from patterns of discourse and interaction. His extensive publication record reveals a strong focus on Eastern Himalayan languages, particularly Tani languages, with research spanning linguistic typology, historical linguistics, and language documentation. Key themes include classifiers, deixis, applicatives, and the ethnolinguistic prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya across more than 50 publications since 2004. His notable recognition includes: 2011 Recipient of the Association for Linguistic Typology's Pāṇini Award Dr. Post has supervised research students including Chintan SHETH on ethno-linguistic prehistory in the Eastern Himalaya. His grant history includes significant projects such as 'Pseudo grains and adaptiveness in the Eastern Himalayas' (ARC, 2023), 'Center for Cultural Linguistic Diversity - Eastern Himalayas' (Firebird Foundation, 2022), and 'A Documentation of the Upper Belt variety of Minyong (Adi)' (Endangered Languages Documentation Programme). He is a life member of the Galo Language Development Committee (Arunachal Pradesh, India) and actively participates in the Association for Linguistic Typology, Australian Linguistic Society, and North East Indian Linguistics Society.
