Hi there! I am Honglin (he/him). I am a computational social scientist and data science doctoral student in the UChicago Knowledge Lab working with James A. Evans. My overall research vision is to harness big data and AI to make sense of innovation and accelerate it in science and technology for the betterment of society.

• I study the driving forces of innovation -- how new ideas are born and spread; how social, scientific, and technological institutions accelerate discovery and influence collective cognition, collaboration, and evaluation; and how innovation and broader societal issues like inequality and policy interact.

• I use and develop computational/quantitative methods: network analysis, NLP, machine learning, causal inference/econometrics, and agent-based modeling. I am especially interested in new technologies like AI for representing, simulating, automating, and detecting innovation.

• Broadly, I am interested in the general theory behind generative novelties in human understanding and LLMs, how machines complement human imagination, and how Generative AI augments social science methodologies and paradigms.

My works appear in top peer-reviewed journals and proceedings across computer science, network science, and social sciences including Nature Communications.

I have backgrounds in mathematics, computer science, social science, and evolutionary biology. Before Chicago I graduated from Michigan State and was a research associate at Harvard Business School (Organizations and Management). I am from China where I volunteered for LGBTQ health for years. I like sports and my most recent bench press was 185 lbs.

I widely and closely collaborate with innovation scholars outside Chicago. Drop me an email if you are interested in working together!