Faculty Research Interests by Academic Areas

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Business
David Hunsaker

David Hunsaker

Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Dr. Hunsaker does research on the psychology of business negotiation. Specifically, he investigates how certain emotions like anger, happiness, guilt, and gratitude influence negotiation processes, satisfaction, and outcomes.

 

Research Opportunities: Dr. Hunsaker's research assistants help in designing and running online studies using Qualtrics and Wenjuanxing software. Interested students are welcome to apply to join the research team. Please email david.hunsaker@nyu.edu with a brief letter stating any research, business, or psychology background you have, as well as why you are interested in this type of research.

Chemistry
John Zhang

John Zhang

Professor of Chemistry, NYU; Global Network Professor, NYU Shanghai

Research Interests: Computational study of protein-drug and protein-ligand interaction, design of drug and protein

Research Opportunities: All motivated students (including study away students) are welcome to apply. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of chemistry and physical chemistry. Please send your academic CV and recommendation letters to Prof. Zhang at jz2@nyu.edu.

 

William Glover

William Glover

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Projects involve using computer simulations to understand how biological molecules respond to radiation spanning the visible to X-ray regions.

Research Opportunities: Undergraduate research opportunities are available in Prof. Glover's theoretical chemistry group. Students in Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Engineering, and related majors are encouraged to apply. Prior completion of 2 semesters of freshman chemistry is expected (preferably also higher-level courses in quantum mechanics and/or thermodynamics). Study away students interested in working in Prof. Glover's group should contact him, at william.glover@nyu.edu, at least one whole semester before they come to Shanghai. See http://wp.nyu.edu/glover for details about the group's research.

 

Xiang Sun

Xiang Sun

Graduate Coordinator of Chemistry, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Theoretical chemistry, charge/energy transfer rates in solar cell materials, photo-induced chemical dynamics in the condensed phase, molecular dynamics in liquids, and ultrafast spectroscopy.

Research Opportunities: All students (including study away students) are welcome to apply, and students with basic chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering knowledge are encouraged to apply. Prof. Sun's group focuses on studying dynamics in the condensed phase ranging from charge/energy transfer in photovoltaic and photosynthetic systems to ultrafast spectroscopy of liquid solutions. Besides, room-temperature organic luminescent materials are under investigation. If interested in learning more about these opportunities, please send a letter and CV to Prof. Sun at xiang.sun@nyu.edu. See wp.nyu.edu/xiangsun for group details.

Computer Science
Gus Xia

Gus Xia

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: AI, Computer Music, Intelligent Interactive Media. See http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~gxia/ for details.

Research Opportunities: All students (including study away students) are welcome to apply, and those who have demonstrated their STEM and lab training are preferred. Applicants should send a letter to Prof. Xia at gxia@nyu.edu summarizing their scientific and experimental experience and proposing a topic(s) of interest.

 

Keith Ross

Keith Ross

Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, Affiliated Professor of Engineering and Computer Science, NYU Shanghai; Professor of Computer Science, Tandon School of Engineering, NYU

Research Interests: (1) Deep reinforcement learning; (2) Social media privacy and safety.

Research Opportunities: For (1) students are expected to be passionate about computation, mathematics, and machine learning. Students should have taken courses in machine learning and in probability, and should have some familiarity with deep learning. First and second-year students are encouraged to apply. For (2) the student should propose a specific and novel privacy or safety problem and have the skills to collect data from social media. Please send your academic CV to Prof. Ross at kwr200@nyu.edu.

 

Siyao Gao

Siyao Guo

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Theoretical computer science, in particular, computational complexity, cryptography, and pseudorandomness.

Research Opportunities: Undergraduate research opportunities are available in Prof. Guo's theoretical computer science group. Interested students are welcome to contact her at siyao.guo@nyu.edu.

 

Marin

Olivier Marin

Professor of Practice in Computer Science

Research Interests: Distributed middleware, fault tolerance, recommendation systems.

Research Opportunities: Multiple research projects (https://wp.nyu.edu/omarin/research/) are available in Prof. Marin's group. All students, including study away students, are welcome to apply. It will be a good opportunity for students interested in pursuing experimental CS research, and could easily turn into a summer research internship. Students interested in working in Prof. Marin's group should contact him at olivier.marin@nyu.edu.

 

Guyue (Grace) Liu

Guyue (Grace) Liu

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, NYU Shanghai

Research Interests: systems, networking, and security, in particular, trustworthy networks, cloud/edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). See https://grace-liu.github.io/ for details.

Research Opportunities: Multiple research positions are available in Prof. Liu's research group. All students (including study away students) are welcome to apply and contact her at guyue@nyu.edu

Research Opportunities: Multiple research positions are available in Prof. Liu's research group. All students (including study away students) are welcome to apply and contact her at guyue@nyu.edu

Economics
Kyle Chauvin

Kyle Chauvin

Assistant Professor of Economics

Research Interests: Microeconomic Theory, Behavioral Economics

Research Opportunities: Kyle Chauvin is an Assistant Professor of Economics at NYU Shanghai. His research in microeconomic theory and behavioral economics investigates the consequences of imperfect learning for communication, persuasion, discrimination, and social networks.

Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, Kyle completed a Ph.D. in economics at Princeton University and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.

Emiliano Catonini

Emiliano Catonini

Associate Professor of Economics

Research Interests: Economic Theory,Game Theory, Applied Microeconomic Theory

Research Opportunities: Emiliano Catonini is an Associate Professor of Economics at NYU Shanghai. He graduated with a PhD in Economics from Bocconi University in 2013. From 2013 to 2021, he worked at the International College of Economics and Finance of Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Emiliano researches in the areas of game theory, information economics, and mechanism design. His working papers can be viewed here.

Sukjoon Lee

Sukjoon Lee

Assistant Professor of Economics

Research Interests:Macroeconomics,Monetary Economics,Financial Economics

Research Opportunities: Sukjoon Lee is an Assistant Professor of Economics at NYU Shanghai. He received his PhD from the University of California, Davis, and his BA from Seoul National University. His research focuses on macroeconomics, monetary economics, and financial economics.

Weiwei Weng

Weiwei Weng

Associate Professor of Practice in Economics

Research Interests: Applied Microeconomics, Market Design, Experimental Economics, Behavioral Economics

Research Opportunities: Professor Weng's ongoing research focuses on the understanding of individual decision-making and the generation of insights that inform public policymaking and the design of managerial practices. She employs game theoretic models as well as develop lab experiments and survey tools to better understand the interplay between various factors, institutional and sociological, and economic decision makings, mainly focusing on two areas: (1) matching and market design, with a particular interest in college admissions problems; (2) beliefs and perceptions, with a focus on experimental investigations to better inform the design of managerial practices of organizations.

She is interested in hiring part-time research assistants for her ongoing research projects with preference going to those with some of the following qualities or attributes: (1) Who are interested in Microeconomic analysis, particularly, individual decision makings; (2) Who have some sense of what experimental economics and behavioral economics is about; (3) Who have some idea of running simple statistical analyses, tests, and even econometric analyses. Students interested in working in Prof. Weng's group should contact her at ww48@nyu.edu.

 

 

Humanities
alexander_c.t._geppert

Alexander C.T. Geppert

Associate Professor of History and European Studies, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Associate Professor, NYU New York

Research Interests: Twentieth-century European social and cultural history; history of science, technology and knowledge; history of outer space, extraterrestrial life and astroculture; history of time, temporality and the future; history and theory of historiography

Research Opportunities: Prof. Geppert welcomes all students – including study away students – with an interest in modern European history, especially on any of the above areas, to contact him at alexander.geppert@nyu.edu. He has a 50/50 joint appointment at NYU Shanghai and the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies in New York and usually spends alternate semesters at the respective campuses. See here for the New York side of his existence.

 

Brad Weslake

Brad Weslake

Associate Professor of Philosophy, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Associate Professor, NYU

Research Interests: General philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of mind. Focus in these fields is on topics connected with the nature of causation and scientific explanation.

Research Opportunities: Interested students may contact Prof. Weslake to work on independent study projects, Deans' Undergraduate Research Fund projects, capstone projects, or for opportunities as a research assistant for his own ongoing research. Please send inquiries to: brad.weslake@nyu.edu.

Interactive Media + Business
Yanyue Yuan

Yanyue Yuan

Assistant Arts Professor of Interactive Media + Business

Research Interests: creative learning experience design in the Chinese context (including informal learning contexts, K12 level, higher education), intergenerational and inter-age learning, art/design as research, creative pedagogies and research methods, cultural and creative industries

Research Opportunities: opportunities are open for DURF projects and capstone projects, as well as short-term and long-term research assistants for Yanyue’s ongoing research projects. Please visit PCI website for more information on Creative Learning Design (CXD) Lab. Please feel free to send inquiries to yanyue.yuan@nyu.edu

You can find Yanyue’s profile here.

Neural Science
Li Li

Li Li

Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Perception and control of self-motion, neural mechanisms for the control of locomotion, eye-hand coordination, visuomotor control in brain-damaged patients.

Research Opportunities: Undergraduate research opportunities are available in Prof. Li Li's Perception and Action lab depending on the match between interests and research projects in the lab. If you are interested in working in Prof. Li's lab, please send your resume and academic transcripts to Prof. Li at ll114@nyu.edu. Please specify which specific research project(s) in the lab (see HERE for details) that you are most interested in.

 

Xing Tian

Xing Tian

Assistant Professor of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Cognitive neuroscience, speech and language, action and perception, and other higher-level human cognitive functions. See http://slang.science for details.

Research Opportunities: : All students (including study away students) are welcome to apply, and those who have demonstrated their STEM and lab training are preferred. Applicants should send a letter to Prof. Tian at xing.tian@nyu.edu, summarizing scientific and experimental experience, and proposing a topic(s) of interest that may fit in Prof. Tian’s group.

Physics
Hanghui Chen

Hanghui Chen

Assistant Professor of Physics, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Condensed matter physics and materials science, first-principles modeling of complex materials.

Research Opportunities: All students, including study away students, are welcome to apply. Students interested in working in Prof. Chen's group should contact him at hanghui.chen@nyu.edu. More details can be found at www.hanghuichen.org

 

Jun Zhang

Jun Zhang

Professor of Physics and Mathematics, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Animal locomotion, including fish swimming and bird flight, and their collective behavior; fluid dynamics and their applications in geophysics, such as continental drift and other internal planet dynamics.

Research Opportunities: Multiple research projects are available in Prof. Zhang's lab. Motivated students who want to experience laboratory experiments particularly in fluid dynamics should contact Prof. Zhang directly at nycdot@gmail.com and check his website here.

 

Tim Byrnes

Tim Byrnes

Assistant Professor of Physics, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Theory of quantum information, experimental quantum computing, condensed matter physics, high energy physics, physics of biological systems.

Research Opportunities: Multiple research projects are available in Prof. Byrnes's group. All students, including study away students, are welcome to apply. Students interested in working in Prof. Byrnes's group should contact him at tim.byrnes@nyu.edu

 

Yishai Avishai

Yshai Avishai

Visiting Professor of Physics, NYU Shanghai

Research Interests: Quantum mechanics, electronic transport in low dimensional systems, quantum dots with metallic and superconducting leads, strongly correlated electrons, kondo effect, non-linear response, the quantum hall effect, cold atom physics, quantum information, quantum pumping, superconductor insulator transition. topological insulators, quantum games.

Research Opportunities: Students interested in working in Prof. Avishai's group are welcome to contact him at ya29@nyu.edu to discuss potential research projects.

Social Science
Friederike Funk

Friederike Funk

Assistant Professor of Practice in Psychology, NYU Shanghai

Research Interests: Social psychology of justice and reconciliation, social cognition, face perception.

Research Opportunities: Research projects on the perception of remorse, criminal stereotypes, and punishment motives are available. All students are welcome to apply; those who have taken at least one psych class (e.g., Intro to Psychology) will be preferred. Applicants should send a letter to friederike.funk@nyu.edu, summarizing research experience and research areas of interest. A list of Prof. Funk's previous publications can be found here.

 

Lixian Cui

Lixian Cui

Assistant Professor of Psychology, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, NYU

Research Interests: Child and adolescent social and emotional development, emotion socialization, psychophysiology of stress and emotion, affect dynamics during social interactions, health and wellbeing of sexual minorities. See Affect Dynamics in Relationships (ADR) Lab for details.

Research Opportunities: Research opportunities, including independent studies, DURF projects, and capstone project(s), are available in Prof. Cui's lab. Students, particularly those who are interested in the research topics and have taken Psychology courses are welcome to apply. Students who are able to make long-term commitments are preferred. Study away students should contact Prof. Cui at least one whole semester before they come to Shanghai. All students interested in working in Prof. Cui's group should contact him at lc145@nyu.edu.