News

A running log of recent activity — publications, talks, awards, media coverage, and other updates from my research and teaching.

2026

• Nov2026
  AwardReceived Top Student Paper Award, Communication and the Future Division, NCA 112th Annual Convention, for the solo-authored paper "Rethinking Emotion in Communication Research: A Four-Level Framework and Computational Measurement Guide." NCA 112th Annual Convention, New Orleans.
• Nov2026
  AwardReceived Top Student Paper Award, Communication and Social Cognition Division, NCA 112th Annual Convention, for the co-first-authored paper "Pride-Anger and Beyond: Mixed Emotion Specificity in Online Media Engagement" (with Ismail, I.). NCA 112th Annual Convention, New Orleans.
• Oct2026
  New preprint posted on medRxiv — Identifying message “recipes” for high perceived effectiveness: Cognitive, social, and emotional profiles of vaping public education messages among young adults who vape. Shared first authorship with Dr. Jiaying Liu.

  Read the preprint
• Oct2026
  Poster at Text as Data (TADA) 2026, UC Berkeley — What do conversation-level language measures measure? Evidence from a randomized experiment with an LLM health chatbot. With Dr. Jiaying Liu.
• Sep2026
  New preprint posted on SocArXiv — Mapping the discourse network of cervical cancer screening on Reddit: A topic-network approach. Solo-authored.

  Read the preprint
• Sep2026
  Led eye-tracking protocol training for undergraduate research assistants in the CHARM Lab. Trained RAs to set up the equipment, run calibration, guide participants through a session, and check data quality — working through practice sessions until each could run a session independently.
• Aug2026
  FundingAwarded a Dissertation Fellowship from the Department of Communication, UCSB. One-quarter fellowship with full release from teaching duties (Fall 2026) to support dissertation completion.
• Aug2026
  AwardReceived the AEJMC Mass Communication and Society Division Student Research Award for the proposal "Generative AI for Scalable Health Message Tailoring: Differential Persuasive Effects across Socioeconomic and Value-Based Subgroups." Presented at the AEJMC annual conference in New Orleans.
• Jul2026
  Two presentations at the Summer 2026 NIH Tobacco Regulatory Science (TRS) Meeting, Bethesda, MD — a poster on generative AI for anti-vaping message tailoring across socioeconomic and value-based subgroups, and an oral presentation on identifying optimal cognitive, social, and emotional profiles of anti-vaping messages via interpretable machine learning.
• Jun2026
  FundingAwarded a Center for AI and Society Grant from UCSB — $8,000. Graduate Research Assistant (PI: Prof. Jiaying Liu).
• Jun2026
  Invited talk at the Affect, Ambivalence, and Adjustment Lab, Singapore University of Social Sciences. "Don't make it about me": When AI-tailored health messages help, hurt, and why it depends on who you are.
• Jun2026
  Four papers presented at the 76th ICA Annual Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. Topics: mixed-emotional headlines, anti-vaping ML profiling, mapping surrealism in AI images, third-person effect in social-appeal messages.

  
• Jun2026
  AwardAwarded the Social Impact Award from the Department of Communication, UCSB.
• May2026
  Talk at Comm Horizons, UC Davis — Generative AI for scalable message tailoring.

  
• Apr2026
  Coverage in The Washington Post: "Social media addiction? This detox could reverse a decade of damage" — featuring Rathje et al.'s Nature registered report on testing the causal impact of social media reduction around the globe.
• Apr2026
  Co-presented with Dr. Jiaying Liu at the Health Communication Symposium, UCSB.
• Mar2026
  AwardCHARM Lab's AI chatbot pilot received the Top Poster Award (Adolescent Network and Treatment Network) at the Annual Meeting of SRNT, Baltimore. Poster: A theory-informed AI chatbot to reduce vaping among young adult vapers via cognitive control enhancement: Insights from a pilot study.
• Mar2026
  Talk with Dr. Jiaying Liu at the Tobacco Prevention Summit, Santa Barbara County — on personalizing vaping prevention messages with generative AI.

  
• Feb2026
  Paper presented at the International Neuropsychological Society, Philadelphia.
• Jan2026
  Guest lecture in COMM 155 Health Communication, UCSB — Internet, technology & health.

2025

• Aug2025
  Attended the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS-Stanford) at Stanford University. Funded by the UCSB Graduate Division IPS Grant.
• Aug2025
  FundingAwarded the Social Science Research Grant Program (SSRGP) from UCSB ISBER — $7,600.
• Apr2025
  Talk at the Symposium on Digital Media & Well-Being, UCSB — Digital media in times of well-being.

2024

• Nov2024
  Paper presented at NCA (Health Communication Division), New Orleans — on congruent and incongruent norms in the digital age.
• Sep2024
  Poster at Trust and Safety Conference, Stanford University — Misinformation potential of AI-generated images.
• Jun2024
  Paper presented at the 74th ICA Annual Conference, Gold Coast, Australia.