Graduate student Chenhao Tan has received a Facebook fellowship to support his research in human-computer interaction and human behavior in social media. The award, one of only 11 given this year nationwide, provides full tuition and fees and a $37,000 research grant each year for two years. He will be invited to visit Facebook to present his research and will have an opportunity for a paid internship there.

With his adviser, Lillian Lee, professor of computer science, Tan uses computer analysis of natural language to explore such topics as how the wording of messages affects persuasiveness, and how people change their linguistic style in moving from one community to another. The work also suggests ways in which social media sites can encourage and guide participation.

Tan received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Tsinghua University in 2010, with a second degree in economics, before coming to Cornell as a doctoral candidate. He spent the summers of 2011 and 2012 working at Yahoo! Research and Google, respectively.