PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Chen Sun

Chen Sun is a computer vision researcher whose AI work spans large-scale visual learning, video action forecasting, and video-based robotics. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science at Tsinghua University in 2011 and a PhD at the University of Southern California in 2016. His 2017 paper studied how training-data scale affects vision tasks; his 2019 action-forecasting paper predicted people's future actions in video and became a CVPR best-paper finalist. He joined Brown as a visiting assistant professor in 2020, joined Brown CS faculty in 2021, and leads the PALM lab's research on unlabeled videos and robotics. In May 2026, he received an NSF CAREER Award for adaptable video blueprints; he is the Eliot Horowitz Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown and a part-time staff research scientist at Google DeepMind.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2011–2016

    Tsinghua and USC degrees

    He earns a bachelor's degree in computer science at Tsinghua University in 2011 and a PhD at the University of Southern California in 2016.

  2. 2017

    Scaling visual learning data

    In 2017, he coauthors Revisiting Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data in Deep Learning Era, which studies how enlarging the JFT-300M image dataset affects vision tasks. The paper reports that performance on vision tasks increases logarithmically with training-data volume.

  3. 2019

    Forecasting actions in video

    In 2019, he coauthors Relational Action Forecasting, which models temporal and spatial interactions among people to predict future actions in video. The work is a CVPR 2019 best-paper finalist.

  4. 2020

    Visiting professor at Brown

    While serving as a staff research scientist at Google, he joins Brown's Department of Computer Science as a visiting assistant professor in 2020.

  5. Since 2021

    Brown CS faculty

    He joins Brown CS faculty in 2021.

  6. By May 2026

    Directing the PALM lab

    By May 2026, he leads the PALM research lab, which focuses on learning generalizable temporal dynamics from unlabeled videos, including multimodal concepts, human behaviors, and raw pixels. The lab explores applications of video-centric world models in robotics.

  7. May 2026

    An NSF CAREER Award

    In May 2026, he receives an NSF CAREER Award to create a scientific framework that lets machines learn from passive observations and active interactions with the physical environment. The framework uses adaptable video blueprints to turn visual experience into physical action sequences that generalize across tasks and environments.

  8. As of October 2026

    Brown and DeepMind roles

    He is the Eliot Horowitz Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown and a part-time staff research scientist at Google DeepMind.

Career

  1. Since 2020Brown UniversityVisiting Assistant Professor, Eliot Horowitz Assistant Professor of Computer Science
  2. NowGoogle DeepMindPart-time Staff Research Scientist
  3. GoogleStaff Research Scientist

Education

  1. 2016University of Southern CaliforniaPhD
  2. 2011Tsinghua UniversityBachelor's degree

From the biography.

  1. 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Chen Sun. We estimate that 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a company; 29% of moves starting at a university went to a company, and 76% ended the university role.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Google. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Google. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Home - Chen Sun chensun.me. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. [1707.02968] Revisiting Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data in Deep Learning Era arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Relational Action Forecasting research.google. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Chen Sun Joins Brown CS As Assistant Professor cs.brown.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Chen Sun Receives An NSF CAREER Award For Learning Adaptable Video Blueprints For Intelligent Systems cs.brown.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Peihan Miao, Chen Sun, And Suresh Venkatasubramanian Receive Named Professorships cs.brown.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.