Cornell University has named five artificial intelligence and data science researchers to faculty positions supported by its Radical Collaboration initiative. Four have joined the university, while Maryam Fazel is expected to arrive in spring 2027, according to a Cornell Chronicle announcement published Sunday.
The hires span communication, statistics, electrical engineering, operations research and mechanical engineering. Cornell says the provost's initiative is designed to connect researchers across departments, with its AI and data science efforts overseen by the Cornell AI Initiative and the Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society.
Danah boyd has joined the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as the Geri Gay Professor of Communication. Her work examines the politics of data and how young people use technology; her new book, “Data Are Made, Not Found,” examines the practices behind the creation of data used in democracy. She previously spent more than a decade at Microsoft Research studying young people's use of social media.
Jelena Bradic is a professor of statistics and data science in both the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her research covers causal inference, machine learning and robust statistics, including applications in public health and policy. She previously taught at the University of California, San Diego.
Engineering hires focus on AI methods and applications
Fazel is scheduled to become a professor in Cornell's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in spring 2027. Now at the University of Washington, where she leads a National Science Foundation-funded data science institute, she studies optimization, deep learning theory, control and reinforcement learning.
Shoham Sabach has joined the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering as an associate professor. His research addresses mathematical optimization and its uses in machine learning, data science and AI. He previously taught at the Technion in Israel and worked as an Amazon Scholar on optimization for large-scale AI systems, including large language models.
Jiang-Xun Wang is an associate professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and leads Cornell's Computational Mechanics and Scientific AI Lab. He combines AI, physics-based models and numerical methods to study complex systems, with potential applications in aircraft efficiency, blood-flow modeling, manufacturing and environmental-contaminant prediction. He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame.
David Shmoys, director of Cornell's Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society, said the hires will bring expertise to departments beyond their primary appointments. Cornell described the recruitment as a cross-campus effort involving its AI and data science initiatives and several colleges and schools from 2025 through 2027.
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