Prof. AU is an Assistant Professor of Economic Sociology in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto, where he was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow. He is also the Treasurer of the Hong Kong Sociological Association, for which he has served as an executive council member since 2022. He most recently served on the Editorial Boards of Sociology, the flagship journal of the British Sociological Association, and Cultural Sociology.

Prof. AU's research examines two core sustainability challenges - inequality and digitalization. His work uses mixed methods to examine capital allocation (human, financial, and cultural) and network practices among individuals, firms, and markets in a digitalizing society, and their repercussions for socioeconomic inequality. More recently, his work has applied these lenses to studying the social construction of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks in firms and states, as well as nascent applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Author of over 50 articles, his work has been published in leading sociology and business journals, including Information, Communication, & Society, Sociology, Socius, Sociology Compass, Current Sociology, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, The Sociological Review, Social Science Computer Review, among others. He is also author of Chinese Social Networks in an Age of Digitalization: Liquid Guanxi by Routledge (2024), which was highly reviewed by The China Quarterly, Social Forces, China Information, and CHOICE. 

• Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, University of Toronto
• Master of Science in Social Research Methods, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Sociology, University of Toronto