Dr Au is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. An award-winning economic sociologist and social network scholar, he has published close to 50 articles in leading journals such as Information, Communication, & Society, Current Sociology, Sociological Review, Critical Asian Studies, Symbolic Interaction, among others. 

Dr Au obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto, where he was most recently a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow. He has previously held interdisciplinary research positions at the London School of Economics & Political Science in the United Kingdom, where he also received his MSc in Social Research Methodology, University of Malaya in Malaysia, National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, Seoul National University and Yonsei University in South Korea, among others. 

Dr Au sits on the Editorial Board ofSociology, the flagship journal of the British Sociological Association, and is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Sociological Association. He has also consulted for the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission, the Plan International-West Africa Regional Office, NGOs, start-ups, university administrations, and court cases (Canadian provincial-level).

• PhD in Sociology, University of Toronto
• MSc in Social Research Methods, London School of Economics and Political Science
• BA (Hon) in Sociology, University of Toronto