University of California, Los AngelesUnited States
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
Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), holds the Chaire, Pauvreté et politiques publiques at the Collège de France, and serves as President of the Paris School of Economics. Her research focuses on understanding the economic lives of people living in poverty to help design and evaluate social policies. Her work spans multiple domains including: Development Economics Poverty Alleviation strategies Health interventions Educational programs Financial inclusion initiatives Environmental policy Governance improvements Duflo revolutionized developmental economics by pioneering the use of randomized controlled trials to test poverty reduction measures. Her empirical approach has challenged conventional opinions about development and has helped improve the efficient use of resources in poverty alleviation programs worldwide. She co-authored the influential books "Poor Economics" and "Good Economics for Hard Times" with Abhijit Banerjee, demonstrating through field experiments how specific interventions (like providing lentils to mothers for child immunization) can dramatically improve social outcomes. Her notable scientific achievements include: Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (2019) Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences (2015) Infosys Prize (2014) John Bates Clark Medal (2010) MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship (2009) A.SK Social Science Award (2015) Duflo has established J-PAL as a global network of over a hundred affiliated professors who use scientific evidence to inform policy decisions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL has offices across Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and South and Southeast Asia. Her work has demonstrated the crucial importance of information in policymaking, with numerous field experiments showing how carefully designed interventions can have significant impacts on social outcomes across multiple domains including health, education, and economic opportunity.
Professor Jo Barraket is a leading academic and researcher in social equity, social innovation, and public policy. As Director of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and member of the Dilun Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership, she focuses on improving social equity through organizational innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and policy design. Her research addresses social procurement, health equity, digital inclusion, and employment pathways for marginalized groups. Her work includes landmark projects such as the Australian Digital Inclusion Index and evaluations of Commonwealth Social Enterprise Development Funds. She has secured over $11M in research grants, including multiple ARC grants, and produced over 75 scholarly publications. Her current projects compare social procurement policies in Australia and Scotland, and study youth unemployment in construction via employment-focused procurement. Key research themes include: social enterprise scaling strategies, cross-sector partnerships for policy implementation, and the role of philanthropy in equitable housing. She advises governments and OECD on inclusive employment policies and chairs major research initiatives like the Social Enterprise Impact Lab. Prof Barraket’s transdisciplinary approach combines rigorous academic research with practical outputs like policy guides and digital tools to maximize societal impact. She previously founded the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne, now a global leader in social economy research.
Adam Hollowell is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Program in Education at Duke University, where he also serves as Senior Research Associate at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity and Director of the Inequality Studies Minor. His teaching spans ethics, inequality studies, and history across Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics, Sanford School of Public Policy, and Department of History. Hollowell holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh (2009). His research focuses on inequality, higher education, public policy, and ethics, with notable work on pandemic impacts, telemedicine in education, and reproductive health access during crises. In Inequality Studies , Hollowell emphasizes understanding policies to drive social change, as highlighted in recent media coverage. His publications explore topics like student behavior shifts during the pandemic, telemedicine adoption in universities, and James Baldwin’s ethical challenges. He is a finalist for the Judith Deckers Prize (2024). Professionally, Hollowell leads projects such as Bass Connections on college contraception access and Story+ initiatives. His work bridges academia and public engagement, addressing systemic inequities through interdisciplinary approaches.
Wei Xu is an Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Computing and School of Interactive Computing, with affiliations to the Machine Learning Center. Their research bridges machine learning, natural language processing, and social media with focus areas in large language models, cultural bias mitigation, multilingual capabilities, and human-AI collaboration in text evaluation. NSF CAREER and Google Academic Research Award recipient Director of NLP X Lab PhD from New York University, BSMS from Tsinghua University Research interests span: Multilingual Multicultural LLMs addressing representational gaps and cultural adaptation in language models (NAACL 2025, ACL 2024); Robustness and Reasoning through dynamic AGI evaluations (ACL 2024, EMNLP 2024); Interdisciplinary NLP applications in security, healthcare, and law (EMNLP 2024, ACL 2024). Recent publications focus on multilingual alignment (NAACL 2025), privacy risk estimation (arXiv 2025), cultural bias analysis (ACL 2024), and medical text simplification (EMNLP 2024). Key themes include bias mitigation, multimodal processing, and practical LLM evaluation. Scientific Awards : NSF CAREER, Google/Sony/Criteo research awards, ACL'24 Best Social Impact Award, COLING'18 Best Paper Advising 15 PhD/MS/BSMS students including Yao Dou (human-centered LLM evaluation), Tarek Naous (multilingual LLMs), and alumni like Chao Jiang (Apple AI/ML) and Yang Chen (NVIDIA research scientist). Teaches graduate courses on NLP and LLMs.
Jean Oh is a Researcher at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) , leading the interdisciplinary Bot Intelligence Group (BIG) . Her work focuses on developing persistent robots that co-exist and collaborate with humans in shared environments, emphasizing continuous improvement through training, exploration, and human interaction. Education: Ph.D. in Language and Information Technologies, CMU M.S. in Computer Science, Columbia University B.S. in Biotechnology, Yonsei University Oh's research integrates vision, language, and planning systems in robotics, with applications in human-robot teaming , self-driving cars , disaster response , eldercare , and creative robotics . She has pioneered projects like socially-compliant robot navigation in human crowds and AI-driven robotic painting systems. Recent publication trends highlight her work in vision-language planning , social navigation , computational creativity , and human-robot collaboration . Notable contributions include the StyleCLIPDraw algorithm for text-to-art generation and Social-PatteRNN for human-like trajectory prediction. Scientific Awards: Best Paper Award in Cognitive Robotics (ICRA'18, ICRA'15) Best Systems Paper Finalist (HRI'25) Best Oral Paper Finalist (Humanoids'24) Best Paper in Entertainment (IROS'24) Argoverse Challenge Winner (CVPR'24) Best Student Paper (AIAA'24) Best Demo Finalist (RoboSoft'24) Oh mentors a diverse team of PhD, MS, and undergraduate students from CMU departments including Robotics, Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. Her research is funded by US Army Research Lab , DiDi Chuxing , and DARPA , with collaborations across industry and academia .
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.
Professor Hutan Ashrafian is a clinician-scientist and surgeon at the University of Leeds Business School, holding dual roles as Professor of Research Impact and Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London. His expertise spans AI in healthcare, metabolic surgery, and ancient history. He pioneered STARD-AI and QUADAS-AI guidelines for AI diagnostics, collaborated on AI-driven breast cancer screening with Google and NHS, and led global health policy initiatives. Ashrafian’s work bridges medicine, history, and philosophy, including his contributions to understanding historical figures’ medical conditions, such as King Tutankhamun’s epilepsy. He has authored over 550 publications, 12 books, and holds a PhD in computational physiology and an MBA with distinction. Awards include the Hunterian Prize and Wellcome Trust Fellowship. His research also explores AI ethics, quantum physics paradoxes, and art-based medical diagnostics. Education: PhD in Computational Physiology (Imperial College London) MBA (Warwick Business School) MD (University College London) Bachelor of Science in Immunology (University College London) Research Interests: Ashrafian’s work spans: AI in Medicine: Diagnostic algorithms, guideline development (STARD-AI/QUADAS-AI), and ethical frameworks. Metabolic Surgery: Bariatric interventions, gut microbiome, and obesity treatments. Ancient History: Medical analyses of historical figures (e.g., Tutankhamun, Julius Caesar) and art-based pathology identification. Philosophy: AI rights (AIONAI law), temporal paradoxes, and the Simulation Argument. Awards: Royal College of Surgeons Arris and Gale Lectureship Hunterian Prize Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship Advising & Innovation: Supervised >50 PhD students, co-founded Oxford Medical Products (weight loss tech), and serves as CSO at Flagship Pioneering’s Preemptive Health division. He advises on NHS digital transformation and global health policy. Labs/Teams: Leads AI initiatives at Imperial’s Institute of Global Health Innovation and collaborates with Google, NICE, and international institutions on health tech solutions.
Chua Tat Seng is a Professor at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS), holding the KITHCT Chair Professorship since 2009. He serves as co-Director of the NExT++ Center, a joint research center between NUS and Tsinghua University focused on Extreme Search. His academic career spans over three decades at NUS, where he has held various leadership positions including Acting Dean of the School of Computing (1998-2000) and Acting Head of the Department of Information Systems & Computer Science (1996-1998). Professor Chua's research spans unstructured data analytics , multimedia information retrieval , recommendation and conversation systems , and emerging applications in e-commerce and fintech . He established the Lab for Media Search (LMS) at the School of Computing and has been instrumental in advancing multimodal learning and search technologies. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, particularly in developing trustable AI systems for real-world deployment. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on large language models for recommendation systems , multimodal learning , and generative AI applications . The research trends show increasing emphasis on LLM-based recommendation, multimodal understanding, and addressing fundamental challenges in AI reliability, fairness, and efficiency. His work spans theoretical advancements in representation learning to practical applications in e-commerce, finance, and healthcare domains. ACM SIGMM Technical Achievement Award 2015 Multiple Best Paper Awards across ACM Multimedia, IEEE Transactions, and MMM conferences (2007-2020) Professor Chua has supervised 37 PhD students since 2004, establishing himself as a dedicated mentor in the academic community. His research has been supported by substantial grants including NExT++ ($12 million), Base Metals Price Forecasting ($200,000), and Multilingual Multimodal Knowledge Graph ($500,000). He maintains active collaborations with Tsinghua University, University of Southampton, and industry partners like Four Elements Capital and Singapore Press Holdings. As co-Director of the NExT++ Center, he leads a major research initiative focused on Web Intelligence and User Empowerment. His visiting professorships at Tsinghua University (2017-present) and Zhejiang University (2021-present) reflect his international impact in the field of multimedia and AI research.
Adrian Weller is a prominent researcher and academic at the University of Cambridge, serving as a Director of Research in Machine Learning within the Department of Engineering. He holds multiple significant leadership roles including Programme Director for Trust and Society at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), and previously served as Programme Director for AI at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK national institute for data science and AI. His work bridges theoretical machine learning research with practical applications and societal implications of artificial intelligence. Weller's research interests span a broad spectrum of AI and machine learning topics with a particular focus on ensuring beneficial societal outcomes. His work encompasses explainability, fairness, robustness, scalability, privacy, safety, and ethics in AI systems. He has made significant contributions to trustworthy machine learning, including developing frameworks for AI governance, certification, and human-AI collaboration. His research group actively investigates neuro-symbolic approaches, privacy-preserving techniques, and methods for improving the reliability and interpretability of AI systems. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward addressing the practical challenges of deploying AI systems in real-world contexts, particularly focusing on certification frameworks, governance mechanisms, and human-centered approaches. His work spans theoretical advances in machine learning architectures while maintaining a strong connection to societal impact, with publications appearing in top venues across AI, machine learning, and interdisciplinary applications. Scientific Awards: MBE for services to digital innovation (2022 Queen's Birthday Honours) Turing AI Fellowship for Trustworthy Machine Learning Weller actively supervises a large group of PhD students and postdocs, with current students including Juyeon Heo, Yanzhi Chen, Katie Collins, Isaac Reid, Yichao Liang, Herbie Bradley, and Shoaib Siddiqui. His former students have gone on to positions at leading institutions including Google DeepMind, ETH Zurich, NYU, and MPI-IS Tübingen. He has served on numerous advisory boards including the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, UNESCO's expert group on AI ethics, and the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on AI. His research has been supported through his Turing AI Fellowship and various collaborative projects focused on safe and ethical AI development. Weller leads a vibrant research group focused on trustworthy machine learning, which actively organizes workshops and conferences including ICML 2024 (where he served as Program Chair), multiple workshops on responsible AI, and events through the ELLIS network. His group collaborates extensively across disciplines, working with researchers in computer science, social sciences, law, and policy to address the multifaceted challenges of developing beneficial AI systems.
Silvia Lindtner is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan's School of Information and Director of the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC). She holds courtesy appointments in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design and the Digital Studies Institute. Her work focuses on the social and cultural study of technology in China and globally, with a focus on data-driven governance, AI ethics, and the intersection of technology and labor. Lindtner has conducted nearly two decades of fieldwork in China, examining innovation ecosystems, digital economies, and the affective dimensions of state control. She is the author of the award-winning *Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation* (2020) and co-author of *Technoprecarious* (2020). Education: PhD in Information and Computer Sciences from University of California, Irvine; BS/MS in Media Technology and Design from University of Hagenberg, Austria. Research Interests: Science and Technology Studies (STS), China Studies, HCI, Critical Computing, AI Ethics, Data Governance, Labor Studies, and Transnational Digital Economies. She explores how technological systems shape governance, labor practices, and everyday life, particularly in contexts of global inequality and state surveillance. Awards: Joseph Levenson Prize (2021), Francis L.K. Hsu Book Prize (2021), ACM Distinguished Member (2022), and fellowships from the National Committee on US-China Relations (2021-2023) and China-US Scholars Program (2021-2022). Grants: Supported by NSF, IMLS, Intel Labs, Google Anita Borg, and Chinese National Natural Science Foundation. Leads interdisciplinary initiatives including Tech.Culture.Matters research group and Michigan Interactive and Social Computing (MISC) research group. Labs/Teams: Directs the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) and collaborates with the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. Current projects include studies on affective control in AI governance and transnational data practices in healthcare and labor.
Professor Anna Korhonen is a leading academic at the University of Cambridge, holding positions as Professor of Natural Language Processing, Co-Director of the Language Technology Laboratory (LTL), Director of the Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence (CHIA), and Fellow of Churchill College. Her work bridges computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, and interdisciplinary applications. Her research focuses on human-centric NLP with core interests in multilingual/low-resource systems, conversational AI, and responsible technology development. She emphasizes applications for social and global good, including healthcare, climate science, and equitable language technologies. Her methodology integrates cognitive modeling with machine learning to create interpretable, fair NLP systems. Key projects include ERC-funded initiatives like MultiConvAI (multilingual conversational AI) and Towards Globally Equitable Language Technologies , alongside Innovate UK's ESG RoboFactory and EPSRC's Modeling Idiomaticity project. Her work spans biomedical text mining ( PheneBank , LION ), educational technology ( EF Education First Research Lab ), and cross-lingual transfer learning. Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Fellow of ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) Royal Society University Research Fellow (2005-2014) Google Faculty Award recipient EACL Chair Elect Korhonen actively supervises PhD/MPhil students in Computation, Cognition and Language programs and leads interdisciplinary collaborations across computer science, linguistics, and domain sciences. Her lab (LTL) develops foundational NLP techniques while addressing real-world challenges through partnerships with healthcare, environmental science, and education sectors. Current strategic initiatives include the Institute for Technology and Humanity and CHIA's human-inspired AI framework.
David B. Shmoys is the Laibe/Acheson Professor of Business Management & Leadership Studies at Cornell University's School of Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE) and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science. He is a leading researcher in approximation algorithms, stochastic optimization, and computational sustainability. His work emphasizes data-driven decision-making in enterprise and society, with applications ranging from healthcare logistics to environmental conservation. Shmoys has advised 27 Ph.D. students and served as an editorial board member for top journals like Operations Research and Mathematics of Operations Research. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley (1984). Postdoctoral positions at MSRI and Harvard University, followed by faculty roles at MIT before joining Cornell. Research Interests: Design and analysis of approximation algorithms for NP-hard problems, stochastic optimization, scheduling, facility location, and inventory management. Applications include computational sustainability, epidemiological modeling, and political districting optimization. Articles Trends: Focus on optimization under uncertainty, computational sustainability, and real-world applications like air ambulance routing, bike-sharing systems, and gerrymandering analysis. Notable works include the 2018 Wagner Prize-winning paper on bike-sharing analytics and the 2013 Lanchester Prize-winning textbook on approximation algorithms. Awards: Lanchester Prize (2013), Daniel H. Wagner Prize (2018), Fellowships from ACM, INFORMS, and SIAM, NSF Presidential Young Investigator (1987). Advising & Grants: Over 27 advised Ph.D. students, with former students at MIT, Waterloo, Brown, and D-Wave. Active in grants related to data science and sustainability. Labs/Teams: Involved in the Institute of Computational Sustainability at Cornell, focusing on applying algorithms to environmental challenges. Collaborates with organizations like Motivate (bike-sharing) and Ornge (air ambulance services).
Bobak Mortazavi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on medical analytics, machine learning, wearable sensors, and cyber-physical systems. He leads interdisciplinary projects in healthcare technology, including AI-driven diagnostics and predictive modeling for cardiovascular diseases. He has received notable awards such as the Best Demonstration Award at IEEE EMBS 2012 and the Best Paper Award at the Fourth International Conference on Data Analytics 2015. His work bridges machine learning with clinical applications, emphasizing practical solutions for healthcare challenges. Recent research includes developing AI tools for aortic stenosis detection, electrolyte estimation via ECG, and real-time patient monitoring systems. He collaborates with industry and academic partners to advance telemedicine and wearable health technologies. Key contributions include the SMART-LV project for smartphone-based cardiac diagnostics and the ArterialNet framework for blood pressure reconstruction using wearable sensors. His work is published in top journals like IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics and Elsevier's Pervasive and Mobile Computing.
Maja J Matarić is the Chan Soon-Shiong Chaired and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering, with courtesy appointments in Neuroscience and Pediatrics. She serves as founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center, co-director of the USC Robotics Research Lab, and Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind. Previously, she held leadership roles as USC's interim Vice President of Research (2020-2021) and Vice Dean for Research (2006-2019). Her educational background includes: PhD in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from MIT (1994) MS in Computer Science from MIT (1990) BS in Computer Science from University of Kansas (1987) Matarić pioneers Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR) , a field her lab named, focusing on human-robot interaction that provides assistance through social rather than physical support. Her research targets critical health and wellness challenges including post-stroke rehabilitation, autism spectrum disorder therapy, cognitive exercises for Alzheimer's patients, ADHD academic support, and mental health interventions. She develops systems modeling user engagement, personality, and motivation, with extensive real-world deployments in schools, rehabilitation centers, and homes. Analysis of her recent publications reveals dominant themes in cognitive health robotics (2025 CHI paper on LLM-powered elder care), pediatric assistive technology (2025 IDC speech therapy review), and adaptive preference modeling (2025 HRI contrastive learning work). Her research consistently bridges machine learning with human-centered design for vulnerable populations. Major scientific recognition includes: ACM Athena Lecturer Award (2024) ACM Eugene L. Lawler Humanitarian Award (2024) ACM Fellow (2020) Presidential Mentoring Award (2011) Multiple society fellowships (AAAS, IEEE, AAAI) As a dedicated mentor, Matarić has championed underrepresented groups through CRA-W, placing numerous women in faculty positions. She leads USC Viterbi's K-12 STEM Outreach Program serving low-income Los Angeles schools and authored The Robotics Prime for student education. Her research has secured significant funding enabling real-world technology transfer, with documented impact in rehabilitation centers and homes through deployable SAR systems. Her Robotics Research Lab at USC drives innovation in embodied AI, with current projects spanning LLM-integrated elder care robots, ADHD academic companions, and autism therapy systems. The lab emphasizes co-design with end-users and rigorous real-world validation across diverse populations.