About

I am an assistant professor in the school of humanities and social sciences (Link) and a joint professor in the school of computing (Link) and the graduate school of data science, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). After finishing my sociology PhD at the University of Washington, I was a postdoctoral fellow and data science scholar at Stanford University. My research broadly contributes to the theoretical understanding of academic knowledge creation by mainly examining the impact of academic search engines, gender inequality in higher education, and the social structure of knowledge construction. To investigate, I utilize new big data sources, innovative analytical strategies, natural language processing, and advanced statistical methods and work with interdisciplinary research teams. I am always open to new collaboration opportunities. Please contact me via email if you are interested.

Research Interest Keywords

Computational Social Science; Science of Science; Sociology of Knowledge; Data Science; Gender; Inequality; Social Network Analysis; Technology and Society

Academic Positions

2021- Assistant professor. School of Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences, KAIST.

2021- Joint professor, School of Computing, KAIST.

2023- Joint professor, Graduate School of Data Science, KAIST.

2018-2021 Postdoctoral fellow. Graduate School of Education, Stanford University.

Education

Ph.D. 2018. Sociology, University of Washington.
M.A. 2014. Sociology, University of Washington.
B.A. 2007. Sociology and economics, Seoul National University.

Selected Publications

Lanu Kim, Sanne Smith, Linus Dahlander, and Daniel A. McFarland. 2022. “Networking a career: Individual adaptation in the network ecology of faculty.” Social Networks (online). Link

Lanu Kim, Daniel Scott Smith, Bas Hofstra, and Daniel A. McFarland. 2022. “Gendered Knowledge in Fields and Academic Careers.” Research Policy 51(1). Link

Lanu Kim, Christopher Adolph, Jevin West, and Katherine Stovel. 2020. “The Influence of Changing Marginals on Measures of Inequality in Scholarly Citations: Evidence of Bias and a Resampling Correction.” Sociological Science 7:314-341. Link

Lanu Kim, Jason Portenoy, Jevin West, and Katherine Stovel. 2020. “Scientific Journals Still Matter in the Era of Academic Search Engines and Preprint Archives.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 71(10):1218-1226. Link

Lanu Kim, Sue-yeon Song. 2020. “Is Korean Academia Unique?: Comparison of Knowledge Discourses between Korean and International Sociology.” Korean Journal of Sociology 54(4):1-40. (in Korean) Link

Projects and Publications/Working Papers

Echo chambers in science?

While pursuing my Ph.D., I examined how technology has shaped our work practices among academics by focusing on the ways in which scientists engage with prior scientific literature. My dissertation idea was developed into an NSF-funded project, “Echo Chambers in Science” (Link). This project, which grew out of conversations I initiated with my advisor, investigated how the development of integrated academic search engines like Google Scholar may have transformed the citation behavior of researchers across multiple scientific fields.

Lanu Kim, Christopher Adolph, Jevin West, and Katherine Stovel. “Identifying Marginals Bias on Measures of Inequality.” [working paper]

Gender inequality in academia

As a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, I have been involved in projects that study the role of gender in the process of knowledge creation. I began a project to investigate whether gendered research interests contribute to women’s underrepresentation in the professoriate. Through analyzing nearly 1 million PhDs who received a degree in U.S. institutions, this research has employed natural language processing techniques and advanced statistical methods to locate potential systematic bias toward particular research ideas. I have found that scientific knowledge associated with women (e.g., schooling or infants) is devalued in academia.

Lanu Kim, Daniel Scott Smith, Bas Hofstra, and Daniel A. McFarland. 2022. “Gendered Knowledge in Fields and Academic Careers.” Research Policy 51(1). Link

Lanu Kim, Bas Hofstra, and Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez. “Differential Return on Performance Persists the Gender Pay Gap among Faculty in the Public University System.” [draft ready]

Risi, Stephan, Mathias W. Nielsen, Emma Kerr, Emer Brady, Lanu Kim, Daniel A. McFarland, Dan Jurafsky, James Zou, and Londa Schiebinger. 2022. “Diversifying history: A large-scale analysis of changes in researcher demographics and scholarly agendas.” PloS one 17(1): e0262027. Link

I have been examining the structure of the formation of collaboration networks among faculty by combining several types of data sets, including grants, publications, and dissertation committees. In this project, I ask how faculty develops different types of collaborations and how to find who to connect.

Lanu Kim, Sanne Smith, Linus Dahlander, and Daniel A. McFarland. 2022. “Networking a career: Individual adaptation in the network ecology of faculty.” Social Networks (online). Link

Lanu Kim^, Hancheng Cao^, and Daniel McFarland. “Rediscovering Aristotle: Are We Creating New Science or Repackaging Old Science?” [^ co-first author]

Vivek Kulkarni, Lanu Kim, Daniel McFarland. “Modeling Tie Dynamics in Ideational Spaces of Scientific Fields - A Network Theoretic Approach.” [draft ready]

Technology and society

Hansen, Ryan N., Basil Matthew Saour, Brian Serafini, Blake Hannaford, Lanu Kim, Takayoshi Kohno, Ryan James, Wayne Monsky, and Stephen P. Seslar. 2021. “Opportunities and Barriers to Rural Telerobotic Surgical Health Care in 2021: Report and Research Agenda from a Stakeholder Workshop.” Telemedicine and e-Health Published online. Link

Serafini, Brian, Lanu Kim, Basil M. Saour, Ryan James, Blake Hannaford, Ryan Hansen, Tadayoshi Kohno, Wayne Monsky, and Stephen P. Seslar. 2022. “Exploring telerobotic cardiac catheter ablation in a rural community hospital: A pilot study.” Cardiovascular Digital Health Journal 3(6): 313-319. Link

Lanu Kim. 2021. “Geographical Locations of Occupations and Information and Communication Technology: Do Online Tools Impact Where People in the U.S. Live and Work?” Sage open. Link

Knowledge structure of peripheral academia

Korean society

Yoon, Soo-Yeon, Sojung Lim, and Lanu Kim. 2021. “Labour Market Uncertainty and the Economic Foundations of Marriage in South Korea.” Asian Population Studies Published online. Link

Shin, Solee and Lanu Kim. 2020. “Chaebol’s Turn to Service: Rise of a Korean Service Economy and the Dynamics of Self-Employment and Wage Work.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 50(3):433-456. Link

Shin, Solee and Lanu Kim. 2013. “Organizing K-pop: Emergence and Market Making of Large Korean Entertainment Houses, 1980-2010.” East Asia 30(4):255-272. Link

Chang, Dukjin, Lanu Kim, and Kiwoong Park. 2012. “The Political Economic Approach on Voting Behaviors in the 17th Korean Assembly Using NOMINATE Analysis.” Korean Journal of Sociology 46(1):1-23. [In Korean] Link

Lanu Kim. 2010. “A Study of Change in Residence Stability through Analyzing Home-Ownership Rates: A Case Study in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 1985-2005.” Seoul Studies 11(1):43-59. [In Korean] Link

Awards

Excellence in Teaching Award, KAIST. 2023.
Research Innovation Awards of the College of Liberal Arts and Convergence Science, KAIST. 2022.
Data science scholar. Stanford University. 2020-2021. Link
Fulbright graduate study fellowship. 2011-2013.
Best paper award, Korean sociological association. 2013.

Grants

Planning for the Future of Rural Telerobotic Surgical Healthcare. NSF Grant ID: 2025814. Consultant. Link
Search Engines Impact on How Scientists Cite. Metascience research grant funded by Fetzer Franklin Fund. Principal Investigator.
Echo Chambers in Science? The Impact of Academic Recommender Systems on the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge. NSF Grant ID: 1735194. Research Assistant. Link

Agenda on Teaching and Research

As a sociology Ph.D. participating in multiple projects rooted in big data and computational methods, I present three elements of my agenda that I bring to my teaching and research.

I believe the future of scholarship lies in interdisciplinary research. From my academic experience, I recognize that advances in data science have the potential to unlock enormous opportunities that will require both excellent data management/analysis expertise and the ability to ask key research questions. Thus, one primary motivation for my work lies in fully exploring these research opportunities.
I have found a unique role for sociology in data science research pursued by such interdisciplinary teams. Sociology offers abundant theoretical scaffolding, which helps explain underlying organizational processes found in big data. My research and mentorship provide an insightful perspective that can guide big data research to have both theoretical and substantive meanings in society, which strengthens my niche in interdisciplinary research.
I am committed to encouraging gender and racial/ethnic minority scholars to utilize data science. While computational methods are shaping many new research directions in the social sciences, ingrained cultural beliefs concerning gender have frequently and consistently discouraged women from pursuing math-based career trajectories.

News

Research associated with women deemed less worthy, study finds. Nature Index. 2022.1.27. Link
Stanford research reveals a hidden obstacle for women in academia. Stanford News. 2021.12.16. Link
한국 사회학계의 고유성은 존재하는가. 교수신문. 2021.02.01. Link

Software

R package (ineqReSample). Link

Teaching

Undergraduate-level courses

Computational Social Science
Introduction to Sociology
Science, Technology, and Society
Special Topics in Smart Convergence <Smart Mobility Design for Designer, Engineer, and Data Scientist>

Graduate-level courses

Recent Trends in Computational Social Science
Introduction to Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences (co-teaching)