Hi, this is Jeff. I study humans, AI, and the complicated feelings in between.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, advised by Professor Yi Mou, and a member of the Center for Future Media & Human-Machine Communication. I also serve as an Assistant Editor for Big Data & Society and as Student Committee Chair (2024–2026) of the Association for Chinese Communication Studies (ACCS). Before coming to SJTU, I received my B.A. in Journalism from Chongqing University.

My Chinese name is 蓝剑锋. Lan (蓝), meaning "blue," is an uncommon surname. As far as I know, there are communities who share it in Guangxi. I am from Chongqing, though, and I am Han Chinese rather than a member of an ethnic minority. Growing up in a city famous for its hotpot also does not mean I can handle spicy food. My given name, Jianfeng (剑锋), comes from the Five Elements. In Chinese tradition, the hour of a person's birth is read through wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, and a name can supply whichever element seems to be missing. My birth chart was found to be short on metal, so my uncle chose two metal characters from the dictionary, 剑 (sword) and 锋 (edge), which together mean "the edge of a sword." For years the name felt a little too sharp. Then I watched The Lord of the Rings and met Sting, the Elvish blade that glows blue whenever orcs are near. A blue blade, it turned out, was a pretty good thing to be named after.