Jingwen Zhang

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on understanding, designing, and testing emerging persuasive technologies in shaping public attitudes and behaviors.

Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor of the Department of Communication and an Affiliate Faculty of the Department of Public Health Sciences and East Asian Studies at the University of California Davis. She received her PhD in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on understanding, designing, and testing emerging persuasive technologies in shaping public attitudes and behaviors. She has conducted many clinical trials that demonstrated the efficacy and mechanisms of social media, online social networks, and mobile applications in changing health attitudes and behaviors. Her most recent research programs focus on understanding and developing conversational AI or chatbot in persuasion and health promotion. She received the Lingnan Award for Excellence in Health Informatics (Lingnan Foundation, 2024), Everett M. Rogers Award (American Public Health Association, 2023) and Ayman El-Mohandes Young Professional Public Health Innovation Award (American Public Health Association, 2021). Her research has been consistently supported by national funding agencies (e.g., NIH, NSF) and foundations (e.g., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). Dr. Zhang’s research have been published in a wide range of top journals, including The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Communications, Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Health Communication, American Journal of Public Health, Preventive Medicine, Annual Review of Sociology, etc.