Yuan Yuan

Ph.D., Social & Engineering Systems, MIT
Bachelor, Computer Science & Economics, Tsinghua University

Research Expertise: Computational Social Science, Causal Inference, Social Networks

Yuan Yuan is a computational social scientist and an Assistant Professor in business analysis at UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Specializing in social networks, Yuan expertly harnesses big data and advanced computational methodologies, such as machine learning and causal inference, to scrutinize behavior and dynamics within social and organizational networks. His expertise extends to experimentation, where he innovates computational techniques to tackle real-world challenges encountered by A/B testing practitioners.

Yuan's academic prowess is complemented by an interdisciplinary background spanning engineering, social science, and business. His research contributions have been recognized in prestigious journals such as PNAS and Nature Communications, and he has presented at top-tier management and computer science conferences including WWW and EC.

His collaborative endeavors include partnerships with leading technology companies like Microsoft and Meta, blending rigorous academic research with practical industry applications. Yuan has also contributed as a visiting researcher at Microsoft Office of Applied Research and as a research intern at Facebook Core Data Science (now Meta Central Applied Science).

Yuan’s academic journey began with earning his PhD from the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, following a dual Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics from Tsinghua University.