As a sociologist and social demographer, Yiang studies social stratification,
and particularly health disparities, examining how micro-level contexts of
family and meso-level contexts of neighborhood and concentrated poverty
jointly shape health and aging. His research uncovers the early-life precursors
and underlying mechanisms through which these contexts perpetuate and reproduce
health differentials and social disadvantages from one generation to the next,
using temporal, developmental, and place-based perspectives. Additionally, he
adopts a comparative perspective to study how contemporary and historical
population processes across countries are linked to morbidity and mortality
patterns.
Yiang's research combines statistical and demographic methods with
computational tools, with a particular focus on causal inference, machine
learning, record linkage, and high-performance computing. He completed a doctoral
certificate in
Advanced Quantitative Methods. In addition to his research, he has taught statistics, data science, and
computational methods, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
His research work has been published in Social Forces,
Social Science Research, Social Science & Medicine, and
Demographic Research, among other peer-reviewed journals.