Linda Zhao’s research centers on networks and neighborhoods, especially in how they relate to inequality and intergroup dynamics in three substantive areas: immigrant integration, policing, and health.

As a computational social scientist, she analyzes networks and longitudinal data using a wide range of quantitative methods, such as agent-based models, marginal structural models, and statistical network models. Some examples of her recent work include a study on the origins of ethnic homophily in adolescent friendship networks, a study on the implications of neighborhood-level inequality for mortality, and a study on the relationship between officer networks and police misconduct.

Linda Zhao is a Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Population Center.

Prior to her postdoctoral work, she earned a Ph.D. from Harvard, a master’s degree from Harvard and an undergraduate degree from Princeton.