Junjun Yin

Junjun Yin is an Assistant Professor of the GW Data Science program. His research bridges Geographic Information Science (GIScience), geospatial data science, and Computational Social Science, with a focus on applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address complex social and environmental challenges. Before joining GW, Dr. Yin was an Assistant Research Professor at the Social Science Research Institute and an Associate at the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. He 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.

Dr. Yin’s 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, remote sensing, and mobility traces, he develops data-driven insights into human-environment interactions in rapidly changing urban environments. His methodological expertise includes spatial data mining, geovisual analytics, and the integration of AI techniques such as machine learning and deep learning with geographic data. He also utilizes high-performance and distributed computing to enable scalable analysis of geospatial big data. His work informs urban planning, disaster resilience, and environmental justice.

As part of the GW Data Science faculty, Dr. Yin is dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration, open science, and training the next generation of data scientists to apply AI and data science critically and ethically, particularly in ways that account for space, scale, and societal impact.