Biography

Dr. Jian Gao is a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI), and Management & Organizations (MORS) Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. He is also affiliated with the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Kellogg CSSI (2019-2021), working with Prof. Dashun Wang. Before joining Kellogg, he was a researcher at The MIT Media Lab (2016-2017), working with Prof. César A. Hidalgo.

His research interests lie in the interdisciplinary fields of Computational Socioeconomics and the Science of Science, focusing on understanding complex social and economic systems. He develops computational approaches to study how science interacts with social institutions, from public policy to new technology to pharmaceutical innovation. Meanwhile, his research examines equity and sustainability of the workforce that drives research, innovation, and economic prosperity. In particular, his works recognize the crucial fact that solutions to many of the challenges facing society today rely on science.

Results from his research have yielded a range of generalizable insights, which hold implications for understanding the role and impact of science beyond science and for promoting an equitable and sustainable research workforce. He has published 20+ peer-reviewed articles in top journals such as Science, Nature, Physics Reports, Nature Communications, and Regional Studies. His works have received 850+ citations with the H-index 16 and been covered by popular media such as Scientific American and Forbes.

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Interests
  • Computational Social Science
  • Science of Science
  • Big Data & Business Analytics
  • Social and Economic Systems
  • Technology and Innovation
  • Broader Impacts of Science
  • Pharmaceutical Innovation
  • Networks & Complexity Science
  • AI and the Future of Work
  • Demographic Inequality & Workforce Sustainability
Education
  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, 2019

    University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (advisor Prof. Tao Zhou)

  • Visiting Student in Media Arts & Sciences, 2017

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab (advisor Prof. César A. Hidalgo)

  • Master Student in Computer Science, 2014

    University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (advisor Prof. Tao Zhou)

  • B.Sc. in Information & Computing Science, 2012

    University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (top 10 undergraduates with the highest honors)

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Research Assistant Professor
Sep 2021 – Present Evanston, USA | working at Kellogg CSSI
 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Sep 2019 – Aug 2021 Evanston, USA | working with Prof. Dashun Wang
 
 
 
 
 
Graduate Research Assistant
Sep 2016 – Sep 2017 Cambridge, USA | working with Prof. César A. Hidalgo
 
 
 
 
 
Visiting Scholar
Feb 2016 – Apr 2016 Boston, USA | working with Prof. H. Eugene Stanley
 
 
 
 
 
Graduate Research Assistant
Sep 2014 – Jul 2019 Chengdu, China | working with Prof. Tao Zhou

Full Publications

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(2022). Promotional student mobility network reveals the academic hierarchy and educational inequalities. arXiv preprint arXiv.

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(2021). Substantial but heterogeneous impacts of high-speed rail on talent flow in China. arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.06508.

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(2021). Potentially long-lasting effects of the pandemic on scientists. Nature Communications.

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(2021). The moderated curvilinear relationship between work experience diversity and salary. Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting Proceedings.

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(2021). Reducing the bystander effect via decreasing group size to solve the collective-risk social dilemma. Applied Mathematics and Computation.

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(2021). Spillovers across industries and regions in China’s regional economic diversification. Regional Studies.

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(2020). Impact of high-speed railway on economic development. Journal of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

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(2020). Quantifying policy responses to a global emergency: Insights from the COVID-19 pandemic. arXiv:2006.13853.

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(2020). Bilateral relatedness: knowledge diffusion and the evolution of bilateral trade. Journal of Evolutionary Economics.

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(2020). Computational Socioeconomics: A data-driven framework for quantifying progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Future Cities, New Economy, and Shared City Prosperity Driven by Technological Innovations.

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(2019). Research on the spatial structure and dynamics of socio-economic systems. PhD Thesis of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2019.

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(2019). Computational socioeconomics. Physics Reports.

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(2019). Online data reveal key factors on salary expectation. Journal of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

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(2019). Regional economic status inference from information flow and talent mobility. EPL (Europhysics Letters).

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(2018). Application of carrier data on precise poverty alleviation and emergency management. Journal of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (Social Sciences Edition).

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(2018). Orderliness predicts academic performance: behavioural analysis on campus lifestyle. Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

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(2018). A trust-based recommendation method using network diffusion processes. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications.

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(2018). Height conditions salary expectations: Evidence from large-scale data in China. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications.

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(2018). Quantifying China’s regional economic complexity. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications.

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(2017). Link prediction in weighted networks via structural perturbations. 2017 14th International Computer Conference on Wavelet Active Media Technology and Information Processing (ICCWAMTIP).

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(2017). Maximizing the collective learning effects in regional economic development. 2017 14th International Computer Conference on Wavelet Active Media Technology and Information Processing (ICCWAMTIP).

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(2017). Stamp out fake peer review. Nature [Note: correspondence article; replied by Springer Nature: T. Welschot, Nature 546 (2017) 210].

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(2017). Collective learning in China's regional economic development. arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.01369.

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(2017). A vertex similarity index for better personalized recommendation. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications.

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(2016). Critical size of ego communication networks. EPL (Europhysics Letters).

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(2016). Promotion and resignation in employee networks. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications.

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(2016). Big data reveal the status of economic development. Journal of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

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(2015). Bootstrap percolation on spatial networks. Scientific Reports.

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(2015). Group-based ranking method for online rating systems with spamming attacks. EPL (Europhysics Letters).

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(2013). Long-term effects of recommendation on the evolution of online systems. Chinese Physics Letters.

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(2012). Finding conspirators in the network via machine learning. The UMAPJournal.

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