Background

Bufan Gao is a doctoral student in social psychology at the University of Chicago, advised by Professor Xuechunzi Bai. She previously worked as a research intern at both the University of Chicago and UCLA, and received her B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Fudan University.

Research interests

Bufan is interested in the cognitive mechanisms of human intelligence, focusing on how individuals learn, reason, and coordinate within complex social environments, and how these processes shape broader social outcomes. Her research employs computational modeling and agent-based simulations to integrate psychological theory with formal analysis.