About

Chris Soria is a PhD candidate in Demography at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studies how social networks shape cognitive health and dementia in aging populations. His NIA F31-funded research uses causal inference methods to examine how personal relationships and network structures influence cognitive aging and health disparities across diverse social contexts. His work has been presented at the Population Association of America (PAA), the American Public Health Association (APHA), and the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA), and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and The International Journal of Aging and Human Development.

Soria also develops computational tools that augment social science research using large language models. After encountering challenges analyzing open-ended survey responses in his research, he created CatLLM—an open-source Python package and web app that enables researchers to apply language and vision models to survey coding, image analysis, and data categorization without machine learning expertise.

Background

I was born in Watsonville, CA, the son of an immigrant from Durango, Mexico, and grew up in Salinas. For my undergraduate studies, I attended City College of San Francisco as a sociology major, then transferred to UC Berkeley, also as a sociology major. I am currently a Demography PhD candidate at UC Berkeley.

Personal

Outside of his academic pursuits, Soria’s personal interests reflect an appreciation for literature, nature, and his home state of California. A devoted fan of John Steinbeck, with whom he shares a birthplace, Soria particularly cherishes “East of Eden” as his favorite work by the author. His love for exploration extends to hiking and discovering lesser-known areas, often accompanied by his pet dogs, Gus and Bentley. At home, Soria’s enthusiasm for nurturing life has led to a veritable jungle of houseplants. In his spare time, he stubbornly persists in playing chess, his strategy best described as “optimistic confusion.” Each game serves as a humbling reminder that his true talent lies in creatively losing pieces rather than channeling Magnus Carlsen.

For more info

Interested in leveraging LLMs for your research but unsure where to start? I’m available for consulting to help integrate language models into your workflow—from survey analysis to data cleaning and beyond. Just email me!

For any questions at chrissoria AT Berkeley DOT edu.