Serena L. Wang

I am a postdoc at Harvard, hosted by Ariel Procaccia. In 2026, I will be joining the University of British Columbia as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science.

I have also concurrently worked with Google Research at 20% time for the last seven years, where I have had the privilege of working with Ravi Kumar, Preston McAfee, and Maya Gupta. I received my PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Michael I. Jordan. My PhD research was supported by the Apple Scholars in AI/ML PhD Fellowship and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

My research focuses on understanding and improving the long term societal impacts of AI by rethinking algorithms and their surrounding incentives and practices. Recently, I’ve been particularly interested in evaluation processes for AI systems and beyond, including how to mitigate gaming [WBAJ’25], how to discover new metrics [WJLM’25] [WBKLMV’25], and how to think about representation and fairness [PSWZ’25]. My research combines ideas from AI/ML, economics, statistics, and optimization.

I am recuriting PhD and masters students applying in Fall 2025 to start in 2026. If you’re interested in working with me, please apply through UBC Computer Science and list my name in your application (for this year, please write my name in directly under “other faculty”).

Email: serenalwang (at) g.harvard.edu