Curriculum Vitae

A summary of education, honors, funding, research experience, service, and skills is below. The complete CV — with full publications, presentations, and grants — is available as a downloadable PDF (updated May 2026).

Education

• 2027Expected
  Ph.D. in Communication (STEM) University of California, Santa Barbara. Dissertation: Multimodal Emotional Appeals in Anti-Vaping Videos: A Computational Approach to Fear–Hope Flow and Message Effectiveness. Committee: Dr. Jiaying Liu (Chair), Dr. Robin Nabi, Dr. Yingdan Lu (Northwestern).
• 2019Dec
  M.A. in Communication Management University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
• 2017Jun
  B.A. (Hons), International Communications Studies with German The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Exchange year: The University of Nottingham, UK (2015–16).

Honors, Awards & Scholarships

• 2026
  Student Research AwardMass Communication and Society Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). For the proposal "Generative AI for Scalable Health Message Tailoring: Differential Persuasive Effects across Socioeconomic and Value-Based Subgroups." To be recognized at the AEJMC annual conference in New Orleans.
• 2026
  Social Impact AwardDepartment of Communication, UCSB — $2,000.
• 2017
  Zhejiang Provincial Outstanding GraduatesMinistry of Education.
• 2016
  Zhejiang Provincial ScholarshipMinistry of Education — RMB 12,000.
• 2014–16
  Best Student of the Year (Top 1, two consecutive years)University of Nottingham — RMB 30,000.
• 2014–16
  President's Scholarship (two consecutive years)University of Nottingham — RMB 30,000.
• 2013–14
  Dean's Scholarship (Top 10%)University of Nottingham — RMB 6,000.

Funding

Internal Funding

• 2026
  Center for AI and Society Grant UCSB — $8,000. Graduate Research Assistant (PI: Prof. Jiaying Liu).
• 2025Aug
  Social Science Research Grant Program (SSRGP) UCSB ISBER — $7,600. Graduate Research Assistant (PI: Prof. Jiaying Liu).
• 2025Aug
  Individualized Professional Skills (IPS) Grant Program UCSB Graduate Division — $1,200.
• 2025Feb
  Graduate Research Funding Department of Communication, UCSB — $500.
• 2019
  CKIDS DataFest Research Funding USC Viterbi School of Engineering — $3,600.

External Funding

• 2025
  TRDRP Predoctoral Fellowship Award Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, University of California Office of the President — $181,539 (proposed). Project: Emotion-Driven Persuasion in Anti-Vaping Campaigns: A Computational and Experimental Approach. Role: Principal Investigator (Graduate Student). Shortlisted; full application submitted; not funded.

Research Experience

• 2024Mar–Present
  Communication, Health, and Emerging Media (CHARM) Lab Department of Communication, UC Santa Barbara. Advisor: Prof. Jiaying Liu. Research on experimental methods, neurophysiological tools (fMRI), and psychophysiological measures (eye-tracking). Graduate Research Fellow on: • Project Leader, Eye-tracking & Discrete Choice Experiment — Behavioral intervention to mitigate nicotine addiction in digital environments (R01CA289552; NIH NCI & FDA CTP). PI: Prof. Lucy Popova (GSU); Co-I: Prof. Jiaying Liu. UCSB subaward total cost: $357,333. • Lead Data Analyst, Computational & AI-Assisted Analysis of Message Effects — Neuroimaging approaches to improve prediction of smoking initiation and nicotine use escalation among young adult ENDS users (K01DA049292; NIH/NIDA & FDA CTP). PI: Prof. Jiaying Liu. Total: $1,305,218. • Graduate Student Project Leader — Scaling socioeconomic and value-based personalization in health messaging: A thin-AI approach to advancing communication equity (Health Communities Project, ISBER, UCSB). PI: Prof. Jiaying Liu. Total: $7,600.
• 2023Mar–Present
  Computational Multi-Modal Communication (CMMC) Lab Cross-institutional. PIs: Prof. Cuihua Shen, Prof. Yilang Peng, Prof. Yingdan Lu. Led and participated in computational research using Python/R. • Project Leader, misinformation potential of photorealistic AI-generated images — Understanding How Visual Features of Misinformation Influence Credibility Perceptions (CNS-2150716; NSF). Total: $500,000.
• 2024Oct–Present
  Computational Media and Politics (COMAP) Lab School of Communication, Northwestern University. PI: Prof. Yingdan Lu.
• 2019–20
  Game Studies Research Group & CKIDS DataFest Annenberg School of Communication & Viterbi School of Engineering, USC. PI: Prof. Dmitri Williams.

Selected Workshops

• 2025Aug
  Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS-Stanford) Stanford University; IPS funding ($1,200).

Affiliations

• 2024–
  NIH/FDA CTP-Funded Tobacco Regulatory Science (TRS) Research CommunityTrainee.

Service

Ad Hoc Reviewer

BMC Public Health · Health Communication · Journal of Health Communication · International Journal of Communication · International Communication Association (Health Communication Division, Computational Methods Division) · National Communication Association · International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC²S²) · Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).

Department Service

• 2025Fall
  Grad Buddy MentorDepartment of Communication, UCSB.
• 2024Sep
  Panelist, COMM Jumpstart 2024Department of Communication, UCSB.

Skills

Programming & Statistics

Methods

Languages

Industry Experience

• 2020–23
  Brand & Marketing Manager, NorthKing Information Technology Co. Ltd. Beijing, China. Led integrated brand strategy and B2B corporate communications for a financial-IT services firm serving major banks. Recognized as Outstanding Employee of the Year.
• 2018
  Branded Entertainment Intern, SEGA Stories International. Los Angeles, CA.
• 2018
  Marketing & PR Specialist, Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival. Los Angeles, CA.

For the complete record — including all publications, presentations, and research experience — please see the full CV (PDF).