Yilang Peng

on March 19, 2025

Charles B. Knapp Early Career Scholar Award 2025

A man with short dark hair wearing a plaid shirt stands in front of a plain gray background, facing the camera and smiling slightly.

Yilang Peng, assistant professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, is a rising leader in computational social science, investigating how digital technologies shape consumer behavior, strategic communication, and the spread of misinformation. His research integrates computer vision, machine learning, and social science methodologies to analyze visual misinformation and its impact on public perception. His work has appeared in top-tier journals such as Journal of Communication, Political Communication, and New Media & Society, earning over 820 citations and multiple awards from the International and National Communication Associations. Peng co-founded the Computational Multimodal Communication Lab, advancing interdisciplinary research on digital media. With a $500,000 NSF grant, he explores how visual misinformation influences credibility perceptions, informing strategies for combating disinformation. His work has been featured in Forbes, The Washington Post, and on ABC, highlighting its real-world relevance. As his research continues to expand, Peng is poised to shape the future of computational media analysis and digital communication studies.