Meng-Hao Li

Meng-Hao Li is a public policy researcher and data scientist with a multidisciplinary background that bridges health policy, network analysis, and informatics. Currently, he serves as managing director of the Center for Biomedical Science and Policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. 

Li's academic journey began with studies in psychology and business, advanced through public administration and social informatics, and culminated in a PhD in public policy—an achievement recognized with the Joseph L. Fisher Public Policy Award. Over the years, he has developed expertise in organ transplantation and policy, illicit trafficking, health interventions, digital governance, policy diffusion, and the application of network analysis, machine learning and large language models (LLMs) to complex policy issues, particularly in the domains of health care and pandemic response.

Li's work lies at the intersection of data and decision-making. He has led or contributed to more than 30 peer-reviewed studies, published in journals such as BMJ Global Health, Journal of Applied Gerontology, JMIR Infodemiology, and Social Science & Medicine. He is especially interested in how large-scale datasets—from electronic medical records to international organ transplant—can inform equitable and effective policy solutions. Li's collaborative research network includes more than 30 scholars, and his analyses often draw on national health databases such as the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), United States Renal Data System (USRDS), and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), encompassing more than 10 million patients and hundreds of millions of clinical and claim records. Through this work, he strives to translate complex data into meaningful insights that support the public good.

Beyond research, Li serves on the publication committee of the N3C and co-organizes the Data Analytics for Elite Young Scholars program at George Mason. He also teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on data analysis and network methods, guiding students in applying empirical tools to address real-world policy challenges.

Areas of Research

• Computational Social Science
• Digital Governance
• Health Interventions
• Illicit Trafficking
• Organ Transplantation and Policy
• Policy Diffusion
• Science and Technology Policy
• Social Networks
• Survey Methods

CURRICULUM VITAE

LI, MENG-HAO
Latest update: 06/26/2025
Van Metre Hall, Room 641
3351 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
Phone: 703-993-7702
E-mail: mli11@gmu.edu

WORK HISTORY

Center for Biomedical Science and Policy
Mar 2022 – Present
Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Managing Director; Adjunct Faculty

Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Jun 2019 – Dec 2021
Graduate Research Assistant

Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics, George Mason University
Jan 2015 – Aug 2019
Graduate Research Assistant

Billing Office, Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery, INOVA Medical Group
Oct 2018 – Mar 2019
Healthcare Data Analyst Intern

Science, Technology and Environment Policy Lab
Aug 2010 – Aug 2014
College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research Assistant | Research Specialist

Graduate Program in Social Informatics, Yuan Ze University
Aug 2000 – Dec 2009
Research Assistant | Research Specialist

Havas/Euro RSCG Worldwide
Aug 1997 – July 2000
Market Investigator Specialist 

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. (2022), Public Policy, George Mason University.
  Dissertation: Multi-state Markov Models for the Analysis of EMRs Diffusion in Healthcare
• Master of Public Administration (2013), Public Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago
  (with concentrations in Science & Technology Policy and Survey Methods)
• Master of Informatics (2003), Social Informatics, Yuan Ze University

Thesis: Redefining the Digital Divide and Its Measurement

• Bachelor of Science (2000), Psychology Major and Business Administration Minor, Chung Yuan Christian University

EXPERTISE

• Professional Knowledge: Public Health, Organ Transplantation & Policy, Anti-trafficking Policy, Science & Technology Policy, Network Analysis, Survey Methods
• Databases / Programming Languages: MS Access, MS SQL Server, Neo4J, R, Python
• Statistical Techniques: Causal Inference, Structural Equation Modeling, Social Network Analysis

TEACHING

• GOVT-435- DL1 Data Analysis for Comparative and International Politics
• POGO-750-019 Network Analysis

HONORS AND AWARDS

1. 2022, Joseph L. Fisher Public Policy Award, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
2. 2012, Winner of Student Competition Paper Award, 2012 TPRC: 40th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy.
3. 2011, ICPSR Summer Program Scholarship, Department of Public Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago
4. 2003, Academic Excellence Award, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan

ACADEMIC WORK

Under Reviews

1. Shukla, Neelam, Abu-Bakker Siddique, Meng-Hao Li, Zifu Wang, Valerie Kovacs, Anna Mattei, Gabriel Yossick, and Naoru Koizumi, "Global Kidney Trading: An Empirical Country-Level Analysis"
2. Bao, Fred, Qiwei Ma, Yunzhe Qiu, Naoru Koizumi, Meng-Hao Li and Michael Fu. "The Impact of ICU Occupancy on Deceased Donor Kidney Offer Acceptance Decisions"

Publications

Organ Transplantation & Policy

1. 2025 Wang, Zifu, Meng-Hao Li, Patrick Baxter, Olzhas Zhorayev, Jiaxin Wei, Valerie Kovacs, Qiuhan Zhao, Chaowei Yang and Naoru Koizumi, "Implementing Large Language Model and Retrieval Augmented Generation to Extract Geographic Locations of Illicit Transnational Kidney Trade." International Journal of Health Geographics 24, no. 1: 1-25.
2. 2025 Kozody, Macrae, Jorge Ortiz, Yang Yu, Arnav Bhalla, Hamsini Katasani, Kyle Herdrich, Meng-Hao Li, Naoru Koizumi, and Geovani Faddoul. "Combined Thymoglobulin and Interleukin-2 Receptor Antagonist Induction Therapy in Kidney Transplantation Is Associated with Worse Delayed Graft Function, Acute Rejection, Graft Loss, and Mortality." Journal of Surgical Research 311: 203-211.
3. 2025 Cogua, Laura M., Connor J. Tupper, Meng‐Hao Li, Olzhas Zhorayev, Naoru Koizumi, and Jorge Ortiz. "Induction With Antithymocyte Globulin Is Associated With Decreased Mortality and PTLD in Pediatric Liver Transplantation: A UNOS Data Analysis." Pediatric Transplantation 29, no. 5: e70118.
4. 2025 Cogua, Laura M., Connor J. Tupper, Meng-Hao Li, Naoru Koizumi, and Jorge Ortiz. "Induction therapy in pediatric liver transplants affects outcomes." Liver Transplantation: 10-1097.
5. 2025 Cogua, Laura M., Connor J. Tupper, Meng-Hao Li, Naoru Koizumi, and Jorge Ortiz. "Adult Only Intestinal Retransplant Is Associated with Higher Rates of Graft Failure, Acute Rejection, and Mortality: A United Network for Organ Sharing Database Analysis." Experimental and Clinical Transplantation 2: 97-102.
6. 2025 Aydin-Ghormoz, Emmanuel, Jorge Ortiz, Kathryn Schubauer, Naoru Koizumi, Meng-Hao Li, and Geovani Faddoul. "Induction outcomes in adult kidney transplantation: Two decades of UNOS data analysis." Transplant Immunology: 102198.
7. 2024 Canova, Tyler, Rochell Issa, Patrick Baxter, Alexander J. Didier, Alicia Nahhas, Meng-Hao Li, Ian Thomas, Naoru Koizumi, Ehab Eltahawy, and Obi Ekwenna. "Comparative analysis of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke hospitalization rates in end-stage kidney disease and kidney transplant patients with and without atrial fibrillation." PloS one 19, no. 12: e0310181.
8. 2024 Cogua, Laura, Connor Tupper, Meng-Hao Li, Naoru Koizumi, Jorge Ortiz. "Letter to the Editor: Induction therapy in pediatric liver transplants affects outcomes." Liver Transplantation.
9. 2024 Mago, Jacob, Mihir Tandon, Naoru Koizumi, Marissa Firlie, Lauren Fang, Scott Serpico, Alejandro Chiodo Ortiz, Megumi Inoue, Patrick Raymond Baxter, Yang Yu, Monique John, Kassem-Ali Jihad Abbas, Liban Dinka, Obi Ekwenna, Meng-Hao Li and Jorge Ortiz. "A Comprehensive Analysis of Litigation in Organ Transplantation for Allegations of Insufficient Policy Coverage, Discrimination and Malpractice." Progress in Transplantation 34, no. 1-2: 11-19.
10. 2023 Li, Meng-Hao, Yang Yu, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Narae Lee, Md Reazul Haque, Md Lutfay Tariq Rahman, Manzur Ahmad, Hadi El-Amine, and Naoru Koizumi. "Using the network scale-up method to characterise kidney trafficking in Kalai Upazila, Bangladesh." BMJ Global Health 8, no. 11: e012774.
11. 2023 Lombardi, Conner V., Jacob J. Lang, Meng-Hao Li, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Naoru Koizumi, and Obi Ekwenna. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on kidney transplant candidate waitlist status across demographic and geographic groups: a national analysis of UNOS STAR data." In Healthcare, vol. 11, no. 4, p. 612.
12. 2023 Nielsen, Joshua, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Meng-Hao Li, Monica Gentili, Seán Columb, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, and Naoru Koizumi. "Social network analysis of illicit organ trading networks: The Medicus case." Trends in Organized Crime: 1-39.
13. 2023 Samuel, Sonia, Ankur Choubey, Naoru Koizumi, Obi Ekwenna, Patrick R. Baxter, Meng-Hao Li, Raza Malik, and Jorge Ortiz. "Demographic inequities exist and influence transplant outcomes in liver transplantation for acute alcohol-associated hepatitis." HPB 25, no. 7: 845-854.
14. 2022 Li, Meng-Hao, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Brian Wilson, Amit Patel, Hadi El-Amine, and Naoru Koizumi. "Identifying kidney trade networks using web scraping data." BMJ Global Health 7, no. 9: e009803.

Public Health & Epidemiology

1. 2025 Baxter, Patrick, Meng-Hao Li, Jiaxin Wei, and Naoru Koizumi. Public Versus Academic Discourse on ChatGPT in Health Care: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Infodemiology, 5(1), e64509.
2. 2025 Ortiz, Alejandro Chiodo, Nathalia Castillo, Mihir Tandon, Juan Ortiz, Yang Yu, Meng-Hao Li, Krithika Shrinivas, David Ford, Naoru Koizumi, and Jorge Ortiz. "General Surgery Leadership Demographics are Associated with Trainee Diversity." Journal of the National Medical Association.
3. 2024 Inoue, Megumi, Emily S. Ihara, Shannon Layman, Meng-Hao Li, Sarah Nosrat, Samreen Mehak, Kendall Barrett et al. "A personalized music intervention in nursing home residents living with dementia: Findings from a randomized study." Journal of Applied Gerontology 43, no. 11: 1611-1620.
4. 2023 Zwemer, Catherine H., Margot E. Day, James A. Zebley, Waleed N. Qaddumi, Meng-Hao Li, Yang Yu, Naoru Koizumi, and Susan Kartiko. "The Effects of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Other Psychiatric Comorbidities to Outcomes in Trauma Patients." The American Surgeon 89, no. 2: 197-203.
5. 2023 Li, Meng-Hao, Rajendra Kulkarni, Naoru Koizumi, Ali Andalibi, and N3C Consortium. "The association of the levels of high-density lipoprotein and apolipoprotein A1 with SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity: an analysis of the N3C database." Biology 12, no. 6: 852.
6. 2023 Haynes, Kingsley E., Rajendra Kulkarni, Abu Siddique, and Meng-Hao Li. "The Impact of Differing COVID-19 Mitigation Policies: Three Natural Experiments Using Difference-in-Difference Modelling." In Pandemic and the City, pp. 97-125. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
7. 2023 Potarazu, Deepika, Aalap Herur-Raman, Eunice Yongyi Cho, Tina Doan, Sangrag Ganguli, Christopher Oltorik, Aneil Srivastava, Naoru Koizumi, Yang Yu, Meng-Hao Li, Khashayar Vaziri, Juliet Lee and Hope T. Jackson. "A visuospatial and kinesthetic 3D-printed model of inguinal anatomy improves applied anatomy knowledge." Global Surgical Education-Journal of the Association for Surgical Education 2, no. 1: 104.
8. 2023 Inoue, Megumi, Meng-Hao Li, Mahdi Hashemi, Yang Yu, Jahnavi Jonnalagadda, Rajendra Kulkarni, Matthew Kestenbaum, Denise Mohess, and Naoru Koizumi. "Opinion and sentiment analysis of palliative care in the era of COVID-19." In Healthcare, vol. 11, no. 6, p. 855.
9. 2022 Inoue, Megumi, Meng-Hao Li, Shannon Layman, Catherine J. Tompkins, and Emily S. Ihara. "Characteristics of nursing facilities and staff willingness to implement a non-pharmacological intervention." Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine 8 (2022): 23337214221146410.2022
10. Li, Meng-Hao, Kingsley Haynes, Rajendra Kulkarni, and Abu Bakkar Siddique. "Determinants of voluntary compliance: COVID-19 mitigation." Social Science & Medicine 310: 115308.
11. 2022 Siddique, Abu, Kingsley Haynes, Rajendra Kulkarni, Meng-Hao Li. "Regional Poverty and Infection Disease: Early Exploratory Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic." The Annals of Regional Science. , 70(1), 209-236
12. 2022 Haynes, Kingsley, Rajendra Kulkarni, Meng-Hao Li and Abu Bakkar Siddique. (2022). Differences in state level impacts of COVID-19 policies. In Theory and History in Regional Perspective: Essays in Honor of Yasuhiro Sakai (pp. 415-431). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
13. 2021 Andalibi, Ali, Naoru Koizumi, Meng-Hao Li, and Abu Bakkar Siddique. "Symptom and Age Homophilies in SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Networks during the Early Phase of the Pandemic in Japan." Biology 10, no. 6: 499.
14. 2021 Li, Meng-Hao, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Ali Andalibi, and Naoru Koizumi. "Analysis of Symptomology, Infectiveness, and Reinfections between Male and Female COVID-19 Patients: Evidence from Japanese Registry Data." Atmosphere 12, no. 11: 1528.

Science & Technology Policy

1. 2022 Khan, Muhammad Salar, Mehdi Nayebpour, Meng-Hao Li, Hadi El-Amine, Naoru Koizumi, and James L. Olds. "Explainable AI: A neurally-inspired decision stack framework." Biomimetics 7, no. 3: 127.
2. 2021 Li, Meng-Hao, “Network Data,” The Encyclopedia of Big Data, edited by Connie McNeely and Laurie Schintler, Springer Publications.
3. 2021 Li, Meng-Hao and Naoru Koizumi. Network Contagion vs. Spatial Contagion: The Diffusion of EHR Incentive Programs in Physician Networks. In Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 3645-3653).
4. 2020 Li, Meng-Hao, Using Link Prediction Methods to Examine Networks of Co-occurring MeSH Terms in Zika and CRISPR Research. In: Sundqvist A., Berget G., Nolin J., Skjerdingstad K. (eds) Sustainable Digital Communities. iConference 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12051. Springer, Cham. pp. 782-789.
5. 2014 Li, Meng-Hao Li and Mary K. Feeney, “Adoption of Electronic Technologies in Local U.S. Governments: Distinguishing between E-services and Communication Technologies,” American Review of Public Administration, 44(1): 75-91.
6. 2014 Hsieh, Yuli Patrick and Meng-Hao Li, “Online Political Participation, Civic Talk, and Media Multiplexity: how Taiwanese citizens express political opinions on the Web,” Information, Communication & Society. 17(1), 26-44.
7. 2005 Li, Meng-Hao and Shu-Fen Tseng, “Redefining the Digital Divide and Its Measurement,” Journal of Cyber Culture and Information Society, 9:89-124. (In Chinese)
8. 2002 Li, Meng-Hao, “The Balance of Online-Self and Offline-Self,” Journal of Cyber Culture and Information Society, 2:117-138. (In Chinese)
9. 2001 Huang, Kuang-Ying, Yu-Qing You, and Meng-Hao Li, “Labor Market in the Move: The Underemployment of Information Society in Taiwan,” Journal of Cyber Culture and Information Society, 1:229-255. (In Chinese)

Social Science & Policy Analysis

1. 2023 Singh, J. P., Neslihan Kaptanoğlu, and Meng-Hao Li. "Taking a Soft Power Approach to Cultural Heritage Protection: Toward an empirical methodology 1." In The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power, pp. 47-69. Routledge.
2. 2023 Listokin, Siona, Meng-Hao Li, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Rajendra Kulkarni, and Naoru Koizumi. "Public pension fund investments into hedge funds during the Great Recession: a network analysis." SN Business & Economics 3, no. 7: 129.

Technical Reports

1. 2021 Naoru Koizumi, Hadi El-Amine, Abu-Bakker Siddique, Narae Lee, Meng-Hao Li, Reaz Haque, & Lutfay Tariq. Network Labeling Optimization for the Hidden Population Size Estimation (KDI School of Policy and Management, Korea)
2. 2021 Koizumi, Naoru, Hadi El-Amine, Monica Gentili, Meng-Hao Li, & Abu-Bakkar Siddique. Engineering Approach for Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks – Conference Report (NSF-1906097).
3. 2019 Singh, J.P., Neslihan Kaptanoglu, Meng-Hao Li, & Eric Childress.  The Cultural Relations Approach and Value of the Cultural Protection Fund.  Report prepared at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Submitted to the British Council, United Kingdom.  November 2019.
4. 2014 Mossberger, Karen, Mary K. Feeney, & Meng-Hao Li, “Smart Communities Evaluation: FamilyNet Centers,” Center for Policy Informatics. Arizona State University.

Invited Talks

1. Jan 4, 2024, Department of Information Management, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan, Dr. Li introduced the diffusion of U.S. healthcare information systems and policies within patient-sharing provider networks.
2. Dec 16, 2022, Institute of Public Affairs Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan: Dr. Li introduced the concepts of social network analysis and shared practical insights on how social network analysis can be combined with econometrics and machine learning techniques to tackle various public policy challenges.
3. Nov 30, 2022, Department of Psychology, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan. Dr. Li’s talk focused on the journey of a psychology student transitioning to a computational social scientist.
4. May 30, 2022, Graduate Institute of National Development at National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Dr. Li introduced the concepts of social network analysis and shared practical insights on how social network analysis can be combined with econometrics and machine learning techniques to tackle various public policy challenges

ACADEMIC SERVICES

1. Member, National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), serving under the Publication Committee (2023–present). 
2. Co-organizer, Data Analytics for Elite Young Scholars program, George Mason University (Summer 2022; Summer & Fall 2023; Summer 2024). 
3. Conference and Journal Reviewer

•  AcademyHealth 2024 Annual Research Meeting
•  American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2025 Annual Symposium
•  American Public Health Association (APHA) 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo
•  BMC Health Services Research
•  Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2018, 2021, 2022, 2024)
•  Heliyon
•  Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
•  iConference (2019, 2020, 2021)
•  International Public Management Journal
•  Networks and Spatial Economics
•  New Media & Society