August 3, 2026
Recent PhD Graduate Alireza Javadian Sabet (SCI ‘26G) received the Best Poster Award at the 12th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) held in Burlington, Vermont.
The study, “How women's empowerment combats national brain drain,” examines how women’s empowerment in migrants’ countries of origin shapes the return migration of highly skilled workers. Using millions of LinkedIn career profiles, the paper finds that skilled women from countries with lower levels of women’s empowerment are less likely than male compatriots to return home, suggesting that expanding women’s rights and opportunities may help countries retain and repatriate female talent.
Javadian Sabet co-authored the paper with Junghyun Lim, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Yixiao Li, a PhD student at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology; Loujaina Abdelwahed, Head of Economic Research at Revelio Labs, Lisa K. Simon, Chief Economist at Revelio Labs; and Morgan Frank, an assistant professor for the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems at SCI.
As part of the award, Javadian Sabet received a special bottle of Sugarhouse Certified Vermont maple syrup.
Please join us in congratulating Alireza on this achievement!