I am a UKRI Metascience AI Early Career Fellow in the Department of Sociology and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. I am also a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford. My research bridges AI and the social sciences, harnessing computational methods and large-scale data to illuminate patterns within complex societal and natural systems. My current work explores the transformative impact of AI on society and human behaviour. I have been awarded academic funding from UKRI and the John Fell Fund.

Prior to my current role, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the same department, working in parallel on the Wellcome Trust–funded FORESFA project on global substandard and falsified medicines and the European Research Council–funded CrimGov project on global organised crime and governance. My research has appeared in leading interdisciplinary journals, including Science, Nature Cities, Nature Communications (in press), PNAS, and PNAS Nexus.

I hold a PhD in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Bristol, completed under the supervision of Professors Thilo Gross, Martin Homer, and Nikolai Bode. My doctoral research employed a combination of top-down (model-driven) and bottom-up (data-driven) approaches, drawing on machine learning, agent-based modelling, and network science to investigate complex systems.

Beyond my research, I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociology, mathematics, and computer science at Oxford and Bristol. I supervise MSc and MPhil students in the Department of Sociology and serve as a college advisor at Oxford. I sit on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy and review for journals such as Nature, Theory and Society, Scientific Reports, and Population Studies, as well as funding bodies including UKRI, the Software Sustainability Institute, and the Oxford Social Sciences Engagement Fellowship.

Fanqi Zeng

Dr. Fanqi Zeng

UKRI Early Career Fellow

Department of Sociology

University of Oxford

Exploring the Intersection of AI & Society ...

Recent News

Latest updates and announcements

Dec 2025
Workshop Organizer

Organized the "Facing AI: Research Opportunities and Challenges in Today's Social Sciences" workshop at the University of Oxford.

June 2025
Paper Published in Science

Our work on falsified medicines and public health was published in Science.

June 2025
Conference Presentation

Presented research at the 2025 International School and Conference on Network Science (NetSci2025, Maastricht).

Mar 2025
Invited Talk

Presented at the Data on Crime and Networks small conference at the University of Manchester.

Jan 2025
Invited Talk (Online)

Presented at the Computational Demography Working Group Seminar at the University of Washington.

Research Overview

Integrating computational methods with social science theories to address pressing questions in AI, complex systems, public policy, and beyond.

AI & Society

Examining the societal implications of AI systems, including implication, regulation, ethics, and institutional design. Exploring how policy can effectively guide AI development for social good.

Computational Social Science

Applying machine learning, network analysis, and large-scale data processing to analyze social phenomena, bridging computational methods and social theories.

Complex Systems Analysis

Investigating emergent patterns of social and natural systems through mathematical modeling. Studying how micro-level interactions generate macro-level patterns.

Social Network Analysis

Analyzing relational structures and their influence on information diffusion, behavior, and outcomes.

Agent-Based Modeling

Developing micro-level models to simulate social processes and strategic interactions to understand macro-level phenomena.

Public Health Applications

Applying computational methods to challenges such as disease spread modeling, intervention evaluation, and health policy analysis.

Selected Publications

For a complete list, visit my Google Scholar profile.

Teaching & Supervision

Courses taught and students supervised at Oxford and Bristol.

Course Instruction/Tutoring

University of Oxford

Sociological Theory (Undergraduate) 2025
Replication Project (Postgraduate) 2024
Fundamentals for Social Data Science in Python (Postgraduate) 2023
Digital Social Research Methods: Statistics Core (Postgraduate) 2023

University of Bristol

Sustainable Development (Undergraduate) 2022
Data Science Mini-Project (Postgraduate) 2021–2022
Software Development: Programming & Algorithms (Postgraduate) 2020–2022
Introduction to Computer Programming (Undergraduate) 2020–2022
Mathematics for Computer Sciences A (Undergraduate) 2020–2022
Engineering Mathematics 2 (Undergraduate) 2018–2021
Engineering Mathematics 1 (Undergraduate) 2018–2021
Mathematics and Data Modelling 1 (Undergraduate) 2019
Professional Engineering (Undergraduate) 2018

Student Supervision

3
University of Oxford
MSc and MPhil students in the Department of Sociology
1
University of Bristol
MEng student in the Department of Engineering Mathematics (Co-supervision)

Public Service & Gallery

Community engagement and professional activities.

Service

  • Academic Committee

    Serving on Departmental Research Committee at the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford.

  • Funding Reviewer

    UKRI, Software Sustainability Institute's Research Software Maintenance Fund, Oxford Social Sciences Engagement Fellowship.

  • Journal Reviewer

    Nature, Theory and Society, Scientific Reports, Population Studies, Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, ACL, etc.

  • Conference Organizer

    Facing AI: Research Opportunities and Challenges in Today's Social Sciences (Oxford, 2025), International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications (committee member).

  • Mentorship

    Mentoring MSc and MPhil students in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford.

Gallery

A bit of a shutterbug — here are some moments I've captured along the way.

Get in Touch

I welcome inquiries from prospective collaborators, students, and colleagues. Please feel free to reach out regarding:

  • Research collaborations
  • Potential supervision opportunities
  • Speaking engagements
  • AI consulting
  • General academic inquiries