Speakers Information
Keynote Speakers
Prof. James Evans
Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Chicago, USA
James Evans is the Director of the Knowledge Lab and a leading voice in the Sociology of Science and Computational Social Science. His research investigates the collective intelligence of human and machine systems, using large-scale data, network models, and computational text analysis to understand how scientific ideas, technology, and culture emerge, evolve, and govern knowledge production. He is known for uncovering patterns in scientific collaboration and innovation dynamics.
Prof. Xiaoming Fu
Professor
Institute of Computer Science
University of Goettingen, Germany
Xiaoming Fu is the Head of the Computer Networks Group, specializing in Internet architectures, mobile computing, and online social networks. His specific contributions include data-driven analysis of Internet traffic, video streaming optimization, and developing novel network measurement techniques. He is recognized as a Fellow of the IEEE and IET for his influential work bridging traditional network engineering and large-scale social computing.
Prof. Lei Guo
Professor
School of Journalism
Fudan University, China
Lei Guo is a Professor focusing on the intersection of computational communication, media effects, and political communication. She is a key developer of the Network Agenda Setting theory and uses big data analytics and machine learning to study how algorithms impact public opinion, how misinformation spreads, and the overall dynamics of news flow in the digital media environment across different cultural contexts.
Prof. Ray Cao
Assistant Professor
Thrust of Urban Governance and Design
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology – Guangzhou, China
Ray (Rui) Cao leads the Responsible Urban Intelligence (RUI) Lab. His expertise lies in GeoAI and Urban Informatics. His research focuses on developing spatio-temporal models using deep learning for sustainable city management, including fine-grained air quality prediction, urban mobility analysis, and the ethical development of responsible AI systems within urban contexts.
Prof. Charles Rahal
Associate Professor
Centre for Demographic Science
University of Oxford, UK
Charles Rahal specializes in Social Data Science and Applied Statistics, with a focus on social and economic inequality. His work is methodologically rigorous, employing latent variable modeling and machine learning for causal inference to analyze large-scale observational data. He investigates factors driving educational attainment, poverty dynamics, and works to improve methodological transparency in computational social science.
Prof. Roy Ka-Wei Lee
Assistant Professor
Information Systems Technology and Design
Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
Roy Ka-Wei Lee leads the Social AI Studio, focusing on trustworthy AI in social networks. His research develops novel graph machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to address issues of online misinformation, cyber-bullying, and digital scams (cyber social safety). He is recognized for his contributions to enhancing human-AI interaction in information systems.
Prof. Wenzhong Li
Professor
Department of Computer Science and Technology
Nanjing University, China
Wenzhong Li is a Professor specializing in distributed systems and pervasive computing, and directs the Sino-German Institute of Social Computing. His key contributions are in mobile social networks, edge computing, and reliable communication protocols. His research addresses dynamic resource allocation and low-latency data processing in heterogeneous network environments to support next-generation social applications.
Prof. Yupeng Li
Assistant Professor
Department of Interactive Media
Hong Kong Baptist University, China
Yupeng Li is the Director of the AI and Social Good Lab at the AI Media Centre. He leads innovative research in Societal AI, Trustworthy LLMs, and Human-AI Collaboration Paradigms. He is a Microsoft Research Asia StarTrack Scholar, and received HKBU President’s Award for Outstanding Performance as Early Career Researcher.
Prof. Muzhi Zhou
Assistant Professor
Thrust of Urban Governance and Design
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology – Guangzhou, China
Muzhi Zhou is a sociologist by training, whose research focuses on social networks, demographic transitions, and quantitative methods. She investigates the impact of digital platforms on family structure, gender roles, and the demographic consequences of social policy in China. Her work utilizes large-scale survey data and advanced network modeling techniques.
Prof. Daniel Romero
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan, USA
Daniel Romero is a core faculty member in the Center for the Study of Complex Systems. His research centers on network science, information dynamics, and collective action. He specializes in modeling information diffusion on social media, analyzing the evolution of collaborative networks (e.g., Wikipedia), and designing mechanisms to improve the quality of crowd-sourced knowledge.
Prof. Omar Alfandi
Professor
College of Technological Innovation
Zayed University, UAE
Omar Alfandi is the Dean of the College of Technological Innovation. His expertise lies in network and system security, Internet of Things (IoT), and smart city applications. His specific research contributions include developing secure authentication protocols for resource-constrained IoT devices and designing privacy-preserving architectures for large-scale urban sensing networks.
Prof. Yuling Sun
Research Professor
School of Computer Science and Technology
Fudan University, China
Yuling Sun focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), adopting socio-technical approaches. Her research designs and evaluates human-centered AI systems for improving mental health support, collaborative learning, and enhancing social interaction quality in virtual and augmented reality environments.
Prof. Hong Huang
Associate Professor
School of Computer Science & Technology
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Hong Huang specializes in data mining, graph neural networks, and knowledge graphs. Her research involves developing novel embedding techniques for complex heterogeneous networks and applying these models to areas like social network analysis, recommendation systems, and information retrieval in e-commerce and smart manufacturing.
Prof. Jar-Der Luo
Professor
Department of Sociology
Tsinghua University, China
Jar-Der Luo is a leading expert on Social Network Analysis in the Chinese context, specifically known for his work on Guanxi (关系), trust, and organizational networks. He employs longitudinal survey data and advanced network modeling to study social capital, corruption, and the diffusion of innovation and management practices in Asian economies.
Prof. Huilian Sophie Qiu
Research Assistant Professor
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University, USA
Huilian Sophie Qiu is affiliated with the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). She uses computational social science methods, including NLP and network analysis, to study scientific labor, organizational behavior, and media content. Her work investigates diversity, inequality, and gender bias in scientific collaborations, open-source communities, and public discourse.
"Best of JSC" Speakers
Prof. Tony Tam
Emeritus Professor
Department of Sociology
Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
Tony Tam is a distinguished Emeritus Professor known for his fundamental research on social stratification, educational inequality, and poverty. His extensive work utilizes longitudinal data and advanced statistical models to track social mobility, health status, and life outcomes across generations in Hong Kong and the wider region.
Prof. Hu Yang
Professor
School of Information Science
Central University of Finance and Economics, China
Hu Yang focuses on computational statistics and data science, with core research in complex data modeling, high-dimensional inference, and machine learning techniques. His work is primarily applied to solving challenging problems in financial modeling, risk assessment, and processing large volumes of time-series and multimedia data.
Prof. Weiwei Gu
Associate Professor
College of Information Science and Technology
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China
Weiwei Gu is a Associate Professor of Computer Science focusing on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and network representation learning. His work involves developing deep learning models for structural information extraction, link prediction, and anomaly detection in dynamic complex networks, with applications in industrial systems and social networks.
Prof. John Martin
Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Chicago, USA
John Levi Martin is a highly influential sociological theorist. His research spans formal theory, social networks, and cultural sociology. He is known for his development of relational models of social structure that emphasize meaning and cognition, and his authoritative works on organizational structure, political sociology, and methodology.
Prof. Damon Centola
Professor
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Damon Centola is the Director of the Network Dynamics Group and a pioneer in experimental sociology. He is known for developing the theory of "complex contagion" (where multiple social reinforcement is key to diffusion). His research uses online laboratory experiments (e.g., thousands of participants) and computational models to study the spread of health behaviors, social norms, and political ideas in digital networks.