Dr. Ruopeng An Named Endowed Professor, Director of C+M Silver Center
The NYU Silver School of Social Work’s leadership in social work innovation has reached another milestone with the appointment of Dr. Ruopeng An as the inaugural Constance and Martin Silver Endowed Professor in Data Science and Prevention and the Director of the Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity (C+MSilver Center). Dr. An is an internationally-recognized scholar in applying artificial intelligence to address public health disparities and social inequities, as well as a leading expert in obesity epidemiology and policy evaluation and a noted interdisciplinary data scientist. He was previously the Faculty Lead in Public Health Sciences and Faculty Fellow for AI Innovations in Education at Washington University in St. Louis.
The Endowed Professorship and C+M Silver Center were both established as part of a $16 million gift from Dr. Constance and Martin Silver to harness the emerging power of AI and big data to identify the root causes of society’s most pressing challenges and achieve broad, transformational social impact. Launched in2021, the C+M Silver Center supports scholarship and early development of innovations in the field of data science for social good. The Center also vigorously engages Silver faculty and doctoral students in applying data science to their work.
“Since the Silvers made their visionary gift, AI and data science have been central to our research infrastructure and academic programming, allowing us to evolve our scholarship and teaching in ways that advance social equity,” said Dean Michael A. Lindsey. “Dr. An’s deep knowledge of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep neural networks will help to propel our leadership in social work research and practice in incredibly innovative and impactful ways.”
Dr. An steps into his role at the C+M Silver Center with a firm foundation for success that has been laid by Professor and Associate Dean for Research Marya Gwadz, who served as the inaugural Director. “With deep gratitude for the Silvers’ visionary trust and the powerful leadership of Dean Lindsey and Professor Gwadz, I am committed to advancing the C+M Silver Center as a beacon of purposeful data science—not just a scientific endeavor, but also a moral imperative to address the root causes of social inequities and champion justice,” he said. “I look forward to working with my talented colleagues at Silver and beyond to achieve this vision.”
Dr. An’s research, which focuses specifically on environmental and policy influences on dietary behavior, physical activity, and obesity, has been funded by federal agencies and public/private organizations. His teaching and methodological expertise include applied artificial intelligence, quantitative policy analysis, applied econometrics and regression analysis, and systematic review and meta-analysis. He founded and chaired two AI anddata science certificate programs at Washington University and hosted the “Artificial Intelligence in the Social Sciences” Open Classroom series.
Dr. An received his PhD in Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica. He also holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan, and completed his BA in Political Science & Public Administration at Peking University in Beijing, China.
Since its inception, the Center has awarded faculty research grants, hosted the 2023 Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, presented data science Symposia at both the 2023 and 2024 Society for Social Work and Research Conferences and launched an ongoing C+M Silver Center Speaker Series with top scholars.
About the NYU Silver School of Social Work
Founded in 1960 and renowned for a strong tradition of excellence in direct social work practice and dedication to social justice, NYU Silver has provided rigorous training to more than 20,000 social work practitioners and leaders in every area of the field, making it the leading destination for students who want to become innovative practitioners at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work practice. The School has four campuses in the heart of New York City, Rockland County, Westchester County, and Shanghai.