PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ben Niu

Also known as 牛奔

Ben Niu is a professor at Shenzhen University whose research uses swarm intelligence and bacterial-foraging optimization. He earned a B.S. in mechanical design and manufacturing in 2001, an M.Sc. in 2004, and a doctorate from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shenyang Institute of Automation in 2008. His 2013 optimizer used information sharing to guide the search, and his September 2026 work applied LSTM, attention, and conformal prediction to health-insurance fraud detection. He was elected Shenzhen's only Pearl River Scholar Chair Professor in 2016 and selected for the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships in 2021. As of October 2026, he is a doctoral supervisor and associate dean at Shenzhen University; his research spans artificial intelligence, big-data analysis, operations research, and smart medical care.

Works
1,203

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2001–2004

    Mechanical design and management degrees

    He earns a B.S. in mechanical design and manufacturing from Hefei Union University in 2001 and an M.Sc. from Anhui Agricultural University in 2004.

  2. 2008

    A doctorate at CAS

    He completes his doctorate at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shenyang Institute of Automation in 2008.

  3. 2013

    A bacterial foraging optimizer

    In 2013, he coauthors A Superior Attraction Bacterial Foraging Optimizer for Global Optimization, which uses bacterial search history and information sharing to guide optimization.

  4. 2016–2021

    A Pearl River Scholar chair

    In 2016, he is elected Shenzhen's only Pearl River Scholar Chair Professor. By 2021, he heads the Management Science Department at Shenzhen University.

  5. 2021

    An innovation fellowship

    In 2021, he is selected for the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships, a joint initiative of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

  6. September 2026

    Explainable insurance fraud detection

    In September 2026, he coauthors an explainable health-insurance fraud framework that uses an LSTM to model claim sequences and conformal prediction to quantify uncertainty.

  7. 2026

    A conference committee role

    In 2026, he joins the technical program committee of the Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems Engineering conference.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leadership at Shenzhen University

    As of October 2026, he is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Shenzhen University and serves as associate dean of its College of Management. His research spans artificial intelligence, big-data analysis, operations research and smart medical care.

Career

  1. Since 2016Shenzhen UniversityPearl River Scholar Chair Professor

Education

  1. 2008Chinese Academy of SciencesDoctorate
  2. 2004Anhui Agricultural UniversityM.Sc.
  3. 2001Hefei Union UniversityB.S. in mechanical design and manufacturing

From the biography.

  1. Stanford University trained or employed 26 of the 108 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Shenzhen University. Stanford University trained or employed 26 of the 108 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of California, Berkeley. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes Microsoft. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Microsoft. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Ben Niu yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. FBA Visiting Scholar Seminar: “Bio-inspired swarm intelligence optimization theories and their applications” by Prof. Ben NIU on 14 May 2021 fba.um.edu.mo. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. A Superior Attraction Bacterial Foraging Optimizer for Global Optimization wseas.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. Past Keynote Speakers | ISBDAI 2026 ieti.net. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. An explainable detection framework for health insurance fraud via temporal capture and confidence assurance nature.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. 2026 6th International Conference on Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems Engineering (MLISE 2026) mlise.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Program and Supervisor Profiles (Management Science and Engineering) lxs.szu.edu.cn. Checked 18 October 2026.