Abigail Coplin, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Science, Technology and Society, was selected by The Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations as a 2025 Project Fellow. These fellows are next generation China scholars and analysts who make academic and policy contributions on pressing issues in U.S.-China relations.

Abigail’s research is focused on the development of China’s biotechnology and agrobiotechnology industries. It examines questions such as how scientific innovation, business, and regime legitimacy co-evolve in the contemporary PRC; how the Chinese state contends with scientific experts and incorporates expertise in its governance schemes; and how China’s pursuit of high-tech development is restructuring relationships among Chinese society, industry, and the party-state. She is currently completing her book manuscript entitled Domesticating Biotechnological Innovation: Science, Market, and the State in Post-Socialist China.

As part of her fellowship, Coplin traveled to China this past summer to meet with a variety of Chinese policymakers and researchers. Ultimately, she will leverage her academic research to develop a policy paper that makes concrete recommendations around issues like data governance, human capital development, and other facets of science and technology policy. These recommendations will be shared with policymakers in Washington, DC this fall, and eventually published on the Penn Project website.