5/6/2024 Bruce Adams
Research.com ranks CS professor Jiawei Han as the #2 computer research scientist in the nation and #3 in the world. But Han quickly gives credit and focuses on his present and former students at Illinois Computer Science, whom he is “quite proud of.”
Written by Bruce Adams
The 10th edition of Research.com ranked computer science professor Jiawei Han from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois as the #2 computer research scientist in the nation and #3 in the world. But Han quickly gives credit and focuses on his present and former students, whom he is “quite proud of.”
The rankings were prepared using data from various sources, including OpenAlex and CrossRef. The bibliometric data for evaluating the citation-based metrics were collected in February 2023. Position in the ranking is based on a researcher’s D-index (Discipline H-index), which includes publications and citation values exclusively for an examined discipline. In Han’s case, that index consists of 216,422 citations and 1,266 publications.
Han pointed to the “brilliant PhD students” who worked with him on research. He mentioned, "I now have students teaching as professors in Duke, UCLA, Georgia Tech, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, USC, Notre Dame, Purdue, almost everywhere.” Han includes students who went into the private sector after completing degrees at Illinois: “I had quite a number of students whose first jobs were at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Google Research, or Amazon AI. I have students in OpenAI in those brilliant research groups.”
One example is Quanquan Gu, a computer science professor at UCLA who received a highly selective Sloan Research Fellowship in 2022. He wrote that “Professor Han is an exceptional PhD advisor and a lifelong mentor and friend. He fosters a highly supportive academic environment within his data mining research group, allowing me the freedom to explore a diverse set of research questions that I am passionate about. Under his guidance, I have not only gained invaluable knowledge and skills but also honed the ability to identify and address important research questions. One such question is active learning on graphs, which emerged as a significant focus during my PhD. He provided invaluable insights and encouragement as I delved into this area. His visionary leadership and unwavering dedication to the success of his students set a standard of excellence that motivates us all. This has profoundly shaped my academic journey, guiding me from a PhD student to a tenured professor. I am deeply grateful for the privilege of being mentored by such an outstanding scholar and mentor.”
When Han chooses students to join his research, he notes, "Of course, when I select students, I'm careful to make sure they can be successful.” He said, “The department and the university provided a really great environment, and the students work really hard, help each other, and are very innovative.”
“Last year,” Han continued, “I got two students. One joined the University of Virginia as an assistant professor, and one joined Washington University in St. Louis. This year, I got one student. He just told me he got a position and committed to Texas A&M. So, I do have lots of brilliant PhDs.”
After teaching at Northwestern University and Simon Fraser University in Canada, Han came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2001. He joined the department of computer science and was named the Michael Aiken Chair in 2019. Regarding CS at Illinois, Han said, “The department provides a very excellent research environment. There are many brilliant colleagues I can work with, and the university has a high reputation and attracts lots of brilliant students.”
Han’s research interests include Data Mining, Natural Language and Text Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence. His collaborations extend to the Molecule Maker Lab Institute, where he assists in investigating “organic chemistry using AI methods like large language model embedding. Using those methods, we can work together to generate new chemistry.” Han also supports the NSF-funded Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE) led by Illinois in collaboration with a group of universities and consortiums.
Han said, “The university provides a very nice environment, not just within the department but across different colleges and departments.” He is involved with the Amazon-Illinois Center on AI for Interactive Conversational Experiences (AICE) and IBM-Illinois Discovery Accelerator Institute, where Han confirmed, “I work with the center, other professors, and IBM researchers. We have weekly meetings and get lots of things done together.”
Han introduces his students to these partnerships with industry and mentioned the Amazon-Illinois Center on AI for Interactive Conversational Experiences (AICE Center), where “We work together with Amazon researchers.” He added, “In the afternoon, I have a teleconference meeting with an Amazon researcher and the student PhD student funded by Amazon.” Han also has students supported by Microsoft and Google fellowships.
“Overall, I think Illinois has so many brilliant faculty colleagues that you can work with, and the students are top-notch,” Han concluded.
Han said of the upcoming transformation of the Department of Computer Science into the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science that “everyone in the department got very excited because everybody knows that computer science, AI, and data science are so important. They impact many other areas, industries, and the whole society. The students really want to major in or at least learn a lot of things related to computers, AI, and data science. We offer lots of courses, but in the meantime, we are growing to adapt to the students’ needs and adapt to society's needs.”
“So that's why I see there are so many new brilliant PhDs,” he added. “They’ve gotten young assistant professors into this department.” Han called computer science department chair Nancy Amato “a great leader. She is very forward-looking, leading the whole department to transform into the school. I’m very excited.”
From his vantage point as a department veteran, Han recalled a donation from Thomas Siebel to build the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, saying that “more than 20 years ago, he donated the money to get this gigantic new building. At that time, the design was to host something like 60 to 70 faculty. Now we are almost going to double it. That’s phenomenal growth.”