Yian YIN - Cornell University, USA
December 8th, 2025
Brennan KLEIN - Northeastern University, USA
December 8th, 2025
TBD
Biography
Brennan Klein's research program is shaped by two drives: First, to develop tools, theory, and models that capture and explore the rich complexity in our natural and mathematical world. Second, to use tools and insights from Complex Systems and Network Science to document—and fight against—emergent or systemic disparities across society, especially as they relate to public health and public safety. Complex systems are able to represent, predict, and intervene on their surroundings at a number of different scales—all in ways that appear to maintain the statistical boundary between them and their environment. These dynamics fascinate him, and they inform his research across a variety of domains, from decision making, to experimental design, to causation and emergence in networks. Brennan received a BA in Cognitive Science and Psychology from Swarthmore College in 2014, studying the relationship between perception, action, and cognition. He received his PhD in Network Science from Northeastern University in 2020.
TBD
Biography
Yian Yin is an assistant professor of information science at Cornell University. His research applies and develops novel computational tools to understand how individual, social, and environmental processes independently and jointly promote (or inhibit) scientific progress and innovation achievements. As a computational social scientist, he has also used science and innovation as a powerful lens to examine broader processes and outcomes in a wide range of complex social processes, from artistic and cultural productions to public policy, from media attention to market competition to human conflict. His research has been published in top general audience venues such as Science, Nature, and Nature Human Behaviour and featured in media outlets such as Forbes, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and MIT Technology Review. Yian received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management Science at Northwestern University, with research affiliations at Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and Kellogg Center for Science of Science and Innovation. He holds bachelor's degrees in Statistics and Economics from Peking University.