Hello, I'm Adam Visokay
I am a PhD student studying at the University of Washington,
advised by Professor Tyler McCormick and Professor Sasha Johfre.
I am also an affiliated student with the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
My research explores how to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to study social phenomena,
typically motivated by questions in public health, economics, and sociology. I am particularly interested in how to perform valid
statistical inference using predictions from black box algorithms and how to effectively use AI/ML methods in a way that is both
transparent and socially grounded.
My most recent work is featured in EMNLP
and COLM.
Contact me at avisokay@uw.edu or find me on strava 🏃!
Education
PhD in Sociology, University of Washington 2023-present
Affiliated PhD Student, Max Planck Institute (MPIDR) 2024-present
MA in Sociology, University of Washington 2024
MA in Economics, Syracuse University 2017
BA in Economics & History, University of Virginia 2016
Experience
Graduate Research Assistant, University of Washington, Seattle 2023-present
Pre-doc Research Assistant, University of Washington, Seattle 2022-2023
Pre-doc Research Assistant, Sciences Po, Paris (Remote) Summer 2021
News
15 Nov 2025 - 🏃♂️ Raced my first half-marathon! In Richmond, VA, with several of my friends! Strava.
04 Nov 2025 - 🧑🏫 Our poster on sociodemographic bias in Google Street View is presented at the ACM SIGSPATIAL Conference in Minneapolis, MN. (Wang was presenting author) [Paper]
22 Oct 2025 - 🏆 Ph.D. Milestone 3/n - I successfully defended my Dissertation Prospectus. Title: 'Bodies of Knowledge'. Committee: Sasha Johfre (co-chair), Tyler McCormick (co-chair), Sarah Quinn, Brandon M. Stewart, Aylin Caliskan (GSR).
21 Oct 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research at the UW + Amazon Science Hub Research & Networking Mixer in Seattle, WA. [Poster]
24 Sep 2025 - 🎒 First day of school - Year 3 of my PhD!
09 Aug 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research on Inference with Predicted Data at the American Sociological Association in Chicago, IL. [Slides]
09 Aug 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research on obesity conceptualization and measurement at the American Sociological Association in Chicago, IL.
05 Aug 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research on using LLMs to study Federal Reserve meeting text on a panel hosted by Wolfe Research. Remote. [Slides]
01 Aug 2025 - 🌲 I am visiting Stanford University for the Summer Institute for Computational Social Science (SICSS).
12 Jul 2025 - 🏆 Ph.D. Milestone 2/n - I passed my Department's Comprehensive Exam with Distinction. Areas: Economic Sociology, Processes of Social Construction, Sociology of Algorithms.
10 Jul 2025 - 🧑🏫 Demo'ing a new project at the Allen School - Microsoft Research Summer Bash in Seattle.
14 Jun 2025 - 🇩🇪 I am back in Rostock for two workshops, one GIS and another on Data Visualization.
06 Jun 2025 - 🎒 I was recognized for earning my Graduate Certificate for Demographic Methods by CSDE at UW. [More info]
28 May 2025 - 🎒 I was recognized for completing my concentration in Social Statistics through CSSS at UW. [Group Photo]
21 Apr 2025 - 🧑🏫 Gave a guest lecture on "Artificial Intelligence" for SOC 270 Social Problems at the University of Washington, Seattle. [Slides].
18 Apr 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research on Inference with Predicted Data at a Tech Talk for Elder Research in Arlington, VA. [Slides].
12 Apr 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research on mortality estimation with LLMs in the "Machine Learning Approaches in Mortality Research" session at PAA 2025 in Washington, D.C. [Slides].
12 Apr 2025 - 🧑🏫 Presented my research on obesity measurement in the "Obesity, Behavior, and Novel Weight-Loss Medications" session at PAA 2025 in Washington, D.C. [Slides].
17 Mar 2025 - 🇩🇪 Traveled to Rostock for the second workshop on open science at [MPIDR].
03 Dec 2024 - 🧑⚖️ Report on Legal Financial Obligations in Washington's Courts is published. [link]
04 Dec 2024 - 🇩🇪 Presenting my research at the 2024 Annual Academy at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. [Slides]
06 Nov 2024 - 🎙 Invited talk at the UW Computational Demography Working Group in Seattle, WA [Slides]
05 Nov 2024 - 🎙 Invited talk at the Fred Hutchinson Deep Learning Affinity Group in Seattle, WA [Slides]
07 Oct 2024 - 🧑🏫 Poster presentation at the first-ever Conference on Language Models (COLM🦙) in Philadelphia, PA [Poster]
25 Sep 2024 - 🎒 Started Year 2 of my Ph.D. at UW!
09 Sep 2024 - 📊 Co-instructed this year's Summer Math Camp for incoming social science Ph.D. students for the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at UW [Course Materials]
15 Aug 2024 - 🎒 Admitted as an affiliated student at the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS).
31 Jul 2024 - 🗳️ Elected to a one year term as President of my department's Graduate Student Association for the 2024-2025 academic year.
10 Jul 2024 - 📜 My paper about post-prediction inference for cause of death estimation is accepted to COLM 2024! [Paper]
08 Jun 2024 - 🎓 I received my M.A. in Sociology [Slide]
20 May 2024 - 🏆 Ph.D. Milestone 1/n - I successfully defended my M.A. Thesis!
01 May 2024 - 🧑🏫 Our poster on sociodemographic bias in Google Street View is presented at the UC Berkeley Data Science Discovery Symposium. [Poster]
01 Mar 2024 - 🧑⚖️ Started my new position doing applied NLP work for Washington State Courts Washington Courts (WSCCR).
07 Oct 2023 - 📜 My paper about using GPT-4 to annotate Federal Reserve documents is officially accepted to EMNLP Findings 2023! [Paper]
27 Sep 2023 - 🎒 Started Year 1 of my Ph.D. at UW!