Cha Meeyoung | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 28, 1979 |
| Nationality | South Korean |
| Other names | Mia |
| Alma mater | KAIST |
| Known for | Measuring User Influence in Twitter: The Million Follower Fallacy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Social computing, complex networks, data science, social networking services |
| Institutions | Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, KAIST, SK Telecom, Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization, Facebook, Institute for Basic Science, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy |
| Theses |
|
| Doctoral advisors | Moon Sue |
| Other academic advisors | Kim Taewhan |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Cha Miyeong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ch'a Miyŏng |
| Website | PRC for Mathematical and Computational Sciences - Data Science Group |
Cha Meeyoung, sometimes known as Mia, is an associate professor at KAIST in the School of Computing and a chief investigator in the Pioneer Research Center for Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the Institute for Basic Science. Her research focuses on network and data science with an emphasis on modeling, analyzing complex information propagation processes, machine learning-based computational social science, and deep learning. In June 2024, she will become the scientific director of the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy. She has served on the editorial boards of the journals PeerJ and ACM Transactions on Social Computing.
Mia had a "boring" childhood in Chuncheon City, Gangwon Province in South Korea where she often spent time along in her thoughts.[1] The entirety of Meeyoung's higher education has taken place at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea. She initially desired to major in astroypyhsics, as she grew up loving stars and was influenced by her physicist father, but KAIST had no degree in astroypyhsics.[2] Majoring in computer science, she graduated magna cum laude for her B.S. Within the Graduate School for Culture Technology at KAIST,[3] the adviser for her M.S. was Kim Taewhan,[4] and her Ph.D. was supervised by Sue Moon.[5]
In 2008, Meeyoung worked as a postdoc in Max Planck Institute for Software Systems[6] under adviser Krishna Gummadi.[7] Leaving Max Planck, she returned to her alma mater and became an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Culture Technology[8] later becoming an associate professor joint faculty member in the School of Computing.[9] Outside of KAIST, she worked as a scientific and technical consultant for both SK Telecom and the Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization in 2010 and 2014, respectively.
In 2015, Meeyoung went to Menlo Park to work as a visiting professor with Facebook's Data Science Team[10] hosted by Lada Adamic. In 2019, she and Oum Sang-il were the founding chief investigators of the Pioneer Research Center for Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS). This and the Pioneer Research Center for Biomolecular and Cellular Structure are the first of two such centers at IBS.[11][12][13] Headed by Meeyoung, the Data Science Group researches fake news, perception biases in relation to AI, deep learning of heterogeneous data for modeling human behavior, and prediction efforts through language processing and image analysis.[14] Seeing the infodemic on COVID-19 information starting in China and spreading to Korea and the US, the Data Science Group and researchers from Ewha Womans University, started the multilingual Facts Before Rumors campaign to separate common claims seen online.[15][16][17][18]
She has been named BACUDA science collaborator of the World Customs Organization,[19] is a member of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs, and a commissioner for the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property, Open Data Mediation Committee, National Tax Service, Korea Customs Service, and Korea Copyright Commission.[20][21][22]
In June 2024, she will relocate to the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Germany to become a scientific director at the Max Planck Society. She will become the first South Korea director and second Asian female scientist to hold such a position at Max Planck.[23][24]
