Work with thought leaders and academic experts from University of Chicago

Dr. Brian Jabarian

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Economist deploying AI infrastructures in firms through safety, strategic and marketing perspectives
Experience

University of Chicago Booth Business School

Howard and Nancy Marks Fellow / September, 2023Present

Research Expertise
Behavioral Economics
Experimental Economics
Judgment & Decision-Making
Economics of AI
Strategy & Innovation
About
Brian is an economist (Ph.D. Paris School of Economics, 2023) working in behavioral and experimental economics, focusing on AI infrastructures, strategy and innovation, and JDM/consumer behavior. He also holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy (Sorbonne, 2023), specializing in business ethics, AI safety, and mixed methods for organizational culture. <br> He currently is the [Howard and Nancy Marks Fellow](https://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/roman/who-we-are/principal-researchers/brian-jabarian) at Chicago Booth Business School, a [Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence](https://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/center-for-applied-artificial-intelligence/about) Research Affiliate, and a [CESifo Research Network Affiliate](https://www.cesifo.org/en/network-member/jabarian-brian). He studies human experience, cognition, and decision-making in complex environments and emergent markets using behavioral theory, computational methods, and experimental settings. He also works with international firms, deploying AI infrastructures through safety, strategic and marketing perspectives.

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Xiaolei Wang

Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
R&D Scientist in biomedical imaging and surgical microscope development
Experience

Duke University

Research Scientist/Manager / June, 2019May, 2022

University of Chicago

Research Professional / April, 2016May, 2019

True Digital Surgery

Principal R&D Scientist / July, 2022January, 2024

Research Expertise
Optical imaging system development
image analysis algorithm development
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering
And 15 more
About
I am an R&D Optical Scientist and Expert specializing in Optical Imaging and Optical Microscope Development for biomedical and clinical applications. With a background in Physics and over 15 years of experience in optical science and imaging, I am passionate about pushing the boundaries of what light can achieve in the realm of medicine and healthcare. My journey in the world of optics has led me to become a leader in the research and development of next-generation optical imaging products that have a profound impact on surgical procedures and patient outcomes. My areas of expertise encompass optical physics, optical microscopy, optical metrology, photonics, and computational modeling and simulation. I've had the privilege of sharing my insights through multiple peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals like ACS Nano, Optical Letter, and Advanced Materials. Additionally, I hold certifications in machine learning and deep learning for image analysis, allowing me to harness the power of cutting-edge technology in my work.

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Zahra Jamal

Associate Director at Rice University's Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance, overseeing strategy, operations, and outreach
Experience

Rice University

Associate Director, Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance / July, 2015Present

Run strategy & operations for international, premier research institute on the study and advancement of religious tolerance. Expanded religious inclusion & interfaith leadership education policies, programs at Rice, eg YoY o Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Advise & train government, corporate, and nonprofit leaders on including religion & belief in diversity & inclusion agendas. Expanded programming held by 800%, overall attendance by 2600%. Expanded media reach to 200+M people. Procured 80+ institutional partners; personally trained directly or indirectly 1M government, corporate, education, and faith sector leaders at local, state, and national levels. Addressed 300 leaders from 50+ nations at invitation of Ambassador Brownback, State Dept. & Former UK PM Tony Blair. Addressed G-20 IF Summit. Featured on BBC, ABC, NYT, German press, CBS’s Hidden Heroes, Slate, Religion News, Think Progress, Freedom’s Ring, Interfaith Youth Core. Recognized by Canadian Senator Mobina Jaffer, President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, the Alliance for Compassion and Tolerance, Rice’s Hudspeth Award. Secured Institute’s recognition in The Atlantic, National Geographic, World Architects, Saudi Aramco World, Charter for Compassion, State Dept, Congress, UNHCR.

Institute for Social Policy and Understanding

Fellow

Assistant Director, Center for the Study of American Muslims

University of Chicago

Senior Research Associate, Dept of Political Science & Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality

Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board for USA

Director of Strategy & Research

USAID

Gender Specialist

University of Chicago

Mellon Fellow, Dept of Anthropology & Center for Gender Studies

Michigan State University

Program Director, Central Asia and International Development

Assistant Professor at Michigan State University James Madison College

Aga Khan Foundation Tajikistan

International Research Lead: Marginalized Populations

Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for USA

Director of Strategy and Operations

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lecturer in Anthropology

Harvard University

Lecturer in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies

The Aga Khan Academies

Ethnographic Consultant: International Education

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

Research Analyst & Consultant: Global Youth Issues & Social Media

The Aspen Institute

Expert Research Analyst & Consultant: Civic Engagement

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Research Analyst & Consultant: Human Rights

About
Dr. Zahra Nasiruddin Jamal is Associate Director at Rice University's Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance, where she oversees strategy, operations, and outreach. She has served on the faculty at Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, Michigan State University (MSU), and Palmer Trinity. Dr. Jamal founded and directed the Civil Islam Initiative at University of Chicago and the Central Asia and International Development Initiative at MSU. She was previously Associate Director of the Center for the Study of American Muslims at The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), where she is currently a Fellow. Dr. Jamal has consulted for the UN, State Department, Aga Khan Development Network, Swiss Development Cooperation, and Aspen Institute on issues of philanthropy and civic engagement, education, positive youth development, migrant labor, gender-equity, food security, and refugee settlement in North America, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia. She has published in academic and popular venues, including *I Speak for Myself*, a volume of autobiographical accounts of 40 American Muslim women leaders, which has been positively reviewed by Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Her Majesty Queen Noor, Deepak Chopra, and others. Dr. Jamal received a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, and double B.A. in Slavic Studies and in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from Rice. She joined the Institute in 2015.

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Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Classics professor at UChicago and Director of IFK
Experience

University of Chicago

Co-Founder and Inaugural Director, Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge / July, 2015Present

Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics / January, 2012Present

affiliated in the Program in Gender Studies

Ann L. and Lawrence B. Buttenwieser Professsor of Classics and Professor in the Committee on the History of Culture / 20092011

affiliated in the Program in Gender Studies

Ann L. and Lawrence B. Buttenwieser Professsor of Classics and Professor in the Committee on the History of Culture / 20052008

Chair, Committee on the History of Culture / 20062008

(a Ph.D granting program)

Chair, Department of Classics / 20012004

Professor of Classics and of The Committee on the History of Culture / 19982005

Visiting Associate Professor of Classics / January, 1998June, 1998

Brown University

W. Duncan MacMillan II Professor of Classics / 20082009

University of California, Berkeley

Associate Professor of Classics and Rhetoric / 19951998

Assistant Professor of Classics and Rhetoric / 19921995

Acting Assistant Professor of Classics and Rhetoric / 19911992

Research Expertise
History and Philosophy of Science
Political Science and International Relations
Literature and Literary Theory
History
Cultural Studies
And 3 more
About
Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer works on Roman imperial literature, the history of rhetoric and philosophy, and on the reception of the western classical tradition in contemporary China.  She is the author of 5 books on the ancient novel, Neronian literature, political theatricality, and Stoic philosophy, the most recent of which is Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural (Winner of the 2016 Goodwin Award of Merit).  She has also edited or co-edited 7 wide-ranging essay collections (two of them Cambridge Companions) and the “Seneca in Translation” series from the University of Chicago. Bartsch’s new translation of Vergil’s Aeneid was released from Random House in 2021; in 2022, she is publishing a monograph on the contemporary Chinese reception of ancient Greek political philosophy.  Bartsch has been a Guggenheim fellow, edits the journal KNOW, and has held visiting scholar positions in St. Andrews, Taipei, and Rome. Starting in academic year 2015, she has led a university-wide initiative to explore the historical and social contexts in which knowledge is created, legitimized, and circulated.

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Ariel Kalil

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
University of Chicago Professor and Expert on Childhood Development
Experience

University of Chicago

Daniel Levin Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and in the College / 2022Present

Research Expertise
Sociology and Political Science
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Education
Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Life-span and Life-course Studies
And 20 more
About
Ariel D. Kalil is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. She is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research associate at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. She is also a faculty member in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and in the College at the University of Chicago. Kalil's research lies at the intersection of child development and public policy. She is particularly interested in the effect of early childhood interventions on health and economic outcomes in adulthood. Her work has been published in leading social science journals, including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Political Economy. Kalil earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor in 1996, her MA in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado System in 1993, and her BA in Psychology and French Literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1991.

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Jill D. Weinberg, J.D., Ph.D

Sociology Professor with publications related to law, sports, and the body.
Education

Northwestern University

PhD, Sociology / September, 2015

Evanston, Illinois, United States of America

Northwestern University

MA, Sociology / August, 2010

Evanston, Illinois, United States of America

University of Chicago

MA, Social Sciences / June, 2009

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Seattle University

JD, Law / May, 2008

Seattle, Washington, United States of America
Research Expertise
Crime & Deviance
Law & Society
Gender & Sexuality
Qualitative Research Methods
Pharmacology (medical)
And 4 more
About
I am a scholar who researches focuses on the ways groups use rules, norms, and the language of consent and choice. My first book, Consensual Violence: Sex, Sports, and the Politics of Injury (University of California Press 2016), examines how two groups that willingly engage in seemingly violent activities — mixed-martial arts and sexual sadomasochism -- enact elaborate law-like rules to organize themselves and to demonstrate their legitimacy to a broader public. My second book, Help Me Die (forthcoming, Stanford University Press), is a cross-country comparison of assisted death and the ways terminally ill people, their loved ones, and medical professionals navigate laws that proscribe or permit aid-in-dying. I am also a methods junkie! I am interested in using cutting-edge methodologies to answer important contextual questions. My methods include ethnography, in-depth interviewing, and quantitative analysis, with an expertise in experimental methods. Currently, I have been studying the efficacy of generative AI to perform research method tasks such as coding. <br>

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Dr. Aparna Labroo, Ph.D.

Northwestern University
Experience

Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Professor of Marketing / June, 2013Present

Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (2011-2013)

Assistant/ Associate Professor of Marketing, Chicago Booth, University of Chicago (2003-2011)

Research Expertise
Business and International Management
Marketing
Social Psychology
Sociology and Political Science
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
And 4 more
About
Dr. Aparna Labroo is a renowned researcher and expert in the field of consumer behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior from Cornell University in 2004. She is currently a highly respected Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. With a passion for understanding how consumers make decisions, Dr. Labroo has conducted extensive research on the psychological processes behind consumer behavior. Her work has been published in top academic journals and has won numerous awards and accolades. Dr. Labroo's expertise lies in the areas of persuasion and influence, and in uncovering the emotional, cognitive, and motivational influences underlying the choices people make, especially in the food, product, lifestyle, financial, and prosocial domains. She is known for her innovative and interdisciplinary approach to understanding consumer behavior, incorporating insights from psychology, policy, and marketing. As a professor, Dr. Labroo is highly regarded for her dynamic teaching style and has been recognized with multiple teaching awards. She is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for various companies and organizations, in the B2C and B2B space and with non-Profits. Her interest is in fostering innovation and helping firms understand how to effectively target their consumers, and how to design experiences that maximize the customer lifetime value. As a leading expert in consumer behavior, with contributions that have significantly advanced the understanding of how people make decisions, her work has not only shaped the field of marketing but has also had a broader impact on society, helping businesses and people make more informed choices.

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Etty Soto

Ph.D. candidate in bioengineering with in progress publications on LNP and adjuvant design with use of machine learning, vaccine formualtion, and PBPK modeling.
Education

B.S, Molecular Engineering / March, 2023

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

University of Pennsylvania

Ph.D, Bioengineering / May, 2027 (anticipated)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

University of Chicago

B.A., Chemistry / March, 2023

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Experience

Applied Materials

Assay Development Intern / June, 2022September, 2022

Optimized an assay for multiplex single-cell RNA spatial analysis.

OpenAi

Contributer / March, 2023March, 2024

Trained models in topics ranging from programming languages (such as Python, SQL, Swift) to biology, math, and chemistry.

Healthy Amplified

Product Analyst / October, 2020February, 2021

University of Chicago

PME Researcher / September, 2022June, 2023

CAR-T engineering research

University of Chicago

BSCD Epigentics Fellow/Researcher / June, 2021June, 2023

Working with neuroblastoma cell lines, attempting to downregulate oncogenic expression via insertion of insulation elements into the genome.

About
I am a bioengineering PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on developing innovative vaccine delivery platforms, with a focus on utilizing machine learning. My research combines expertise in lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations, mRNA technology, and computer science to optimize vaccines for mucosal delivery, aiming to create accessible and effective solutions for global health challenges. With a background in chemistry, molecular engineering, computer science and immunoengineering, I am passionate about advancing scientific knowledge while addressing critical gaps in vaccine technology, especially for low-resource settings.

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Dalton Moore, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Scientist with expertise in Machine Learning, Statistical Modeling, and Data Science Pipelines using Python
Education

University of Chicago

Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience / December, 2023

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Arizona State University

M.S., Biomedical Engineering / May, 2016

Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
Experience

University of Chicago

Postdoctoral Scientist / October, 2023Present

• Applied machine learning models in PyTorch to improve decoders predicting hand movements from brain activity. • Constructed a full-stack data pipeline that decreased processing time for raw data streams of ~1TB/day by >100%. • Served as lead data scientist for the research team and refined the lab’s data processing and analysis infrastructure. • Mentored five junior graduate students in all facets of computational, experimental, and data science techniques. • Led the development of long-term research agendas and coordinated software development projects.

Graduate Researcher / September, 2017September, 2023

• Surgically implanted electrodes and recorded neural activity from the brain of marmoset monkeys. • Built a statistical model to predict brain activity from hand movements and network interactions between neurons. Generated ground-breaking findings in the field of motor control through examination of network interactions. • Collaborated with a team of world-leading neuroscientists and engineers to design and advance human brain-computer interfaces allowing paralyzed participants to control robotic arms and hands with brain activity. • Contributed to open-source computer vision tools. • Designed and built the multi-camera data acquisition system that will be used by all future researchers in the lab. • Presented research at high-impact conferences including SFN, AREADNE, and Simian Collective.

Research Expertise
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Molecular Biology
Animal Science and Zoology
Aquatic Science
Insect Science
And 3 more

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Richard D. Johnson

A Trailblazing First-Gen PhD Candidate in Economics Unveiling Groundbreaking Insights into Workplace Dynamics, Labor Markets, and the Broader Economy, Applying a Nuanced Behavioral Economics Perspective
Education

University of North Texas

Bachelor's of Science, Economics & Statistics / May, 2016

Denton, Texas, United States of America

Georgetown University

Masters, Applied Economics / May, 2018

Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States of America

University of Chicago

Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (Masters), Economics and Computer Science / December, 2021

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Cornell University

Ph.D., Economics (Macro, Labor and Behavioral) / May, 2025 (anticipated)

Ithaca, New York, United States of America
Experience

Glassdoor

Associate Economist & Data Scientist / August, 2021September, 2023

https://www.glassdoor.com/research/author/richardjohnson

University of Chicago

Research Assistant / January, 2021August, 2021

Accenture

Data Scientist (MC) / July, 2019August, 2021

US Postal Service

Pricing Data Analyst / July, 20172019

About
Richard D. Johnson has a proven record for elevating discourse on workplace dynamics, labor markets, and the broader economic landscape. Richard has been cited in top-tier outlets such as Business Insider, Forbes, CNBC, and Bloomberg Finance. Richard provides a nuanced perspective in the formulation of hypotheses for project-implementation, from ideation to deployment, and has contributed at scale to predictive modeling efforts and experimentation.

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