Yanmeng Xing

A new chapter begins! Starting Feb 2026, I’ll join Nanjing University, Suzhou Campus as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Center for Data Management Innovation, School of Frontier Science. Grateful for the support of mentors, family, and friends. yanmeng0705.github.io/my-website/

From blood vessels to neurons, physical networks are modeled as wires optimized for length. In @Nature we how surface minimization, via a surprising link to string theory, explains brain and vascular architecture, including neuronal sprouting. Paper: barabasi.com/science/public…

If you want to dismantle a multilayer network you can use MultiDismantler nature.com/articles/s4225…

@ElihuAranday Thank you, Elihu. The best cartoon to describe the story we are telling.

Bigger isn’t always better in mentorship. While mentees from larger research groups often excel academically, they’re also more likely to drop out of academia. Surprisingly, mentees with highly productive mentors face lower survival rates too. nature.com/articles/s4156…

First publication "Academic mentees thrive in big groups, but survive in small groups" nature.com/articles/s4156… in Nature Series @NatureHumBehav Related cover stories nature.com/articles/d4158…, physicsworld.com/a/early-career…, mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bofsV_pY3f0v….

Research by Zeng et al shows that mentees trained in larger groups tend to exhibit superior academic performance compared to those from smaller groups, as long as they stay in academia after graduation. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Having a large research group is prestigious, but do younger scholars benefit? 🧑‍🎓 @YanmengXing, @YifangMa, @robysinatra and co find that mentees from larger groups are more successful, but also more likely to drop out of academia. Now in Nature Hum Beh: nature.com/articles/s4156…

royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rsta/2022/… ‘Emergent phenomena in complex physical and socio-technical systems: from cells to societies’

Result 3: Lastly, along the path to independence, increased co-authorship with mentors impedes the mentees’ impact, whereas, while extending their collaboration networks with the mentors’ former collaborators proves beneficial

Result 2: We also find an inverted U-shaped relationship between topic divergence from the mentors’ research focus and long-term impact, with moderate divergence maximizing success, while excessive divergence can be detrimental.

New preprint. "Exaptation: Academic Mentees' Career Pathway to Be Independent and Impactful" arxiv.org/abs/2408.16992. Do you want to be an independent and successful scientist? Please find some clues in our work.

Result 3: Lastly, along the path to independence, increased co-authorship with mentors impedes the mentees’ impact, whereas, while extending their collaboration networks with the mentors’ former collaborators proves beneficial

Result 1: Many scholars merely follow their mentors' research paths, but high-impact scholars often diverge, focusing on mentors' secondary areas and exploring new directions to build independent and successful careers, even outperforming their mentors' academic impact.

Would you like to do a PhD with me at ITU at the intersection of AI, Network Science and Computational Social Science then take a look here 👇 candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationIni… The PhD school is looking for 3 candidates with start fall 2024.

Out today in @NatureBiotech! PhD students & postdocs: there's a trick – overlooked and underused – for having new ideas in the creative process. Talk science 1 on 1 with a science buddy that you trust and think of it as an improvisation. nature.com/articles/s4158…… @MartinJLercher

So... I was awarded an ERC Consolidator grant 😱🤓 It is titled "Quantifying AI-infused science", scAIence for short. A press release here: socialsciences.ku.dk/news/2023/new-…, a post from the NERDS: nerds.itu.dk/2023/11/23/rob… and my own thoughts: robertasinatra.com/2023/11/23/cel…

New career stop! I will start working as a Postdoc at Department of Statistics and Data Science at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech, stat-ds.sustech.edu.cn). Being so thrilled with the two-year academic journey in this vibrant city(Shenzhen, China).