Junjun Yin

Assistant Professor
Department of Data Science
Columbian College of Arts & Sciences
George Washington University

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science at George Washington University. Previously, I was an Assistant Research Professor at Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute and Population Research Institute, an Associate at its Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. I also served as a postdoctoral fellow at the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

My research bridges Geographic Information Science (GIScience), Geospatial Data Science, and Computational Social Science, with a focus on tackling complex social and environmental challenges. My research explores the spatiotemporal dynamics of human behavior and urban systems, particularly how geographic contexts influence decision-making and shape patterns of mobility, accessibility, and urban living. By leveraging massive geospatial datasets, including social media posts, remote sensing imagery, and mobility traces, I develop data-driven insights into human-environment interactions in rapidly changing urban environments. My methodological expertise includes spatial data mining, geovisual analytics, and the integration of AI techniques such as machine learning and deep learning with geographic data. I also utilize high-performance and distributed computing to enable scalable analysis of geospatial big data.

Research Interests

  • GIScience, Geospatial Data Science, Computational Social Science, Spatial Analysis and Modelling, Geo-Complexity, Human Mobility

Education

  • Postdoc in GIScience, 2016, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
  • Ph.D in Spatial Information Science, 2013, Dublin Institute of Technology

Experience

  • Assistant Research Professor, Social Science Research Institute and Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, 2019 - 2025
  • Associate, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, 2018 - 2025
  • Social Science Big Data Research Scientist, Pennsylvania State University, 2016 - 2018
  • Lecturer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016