CV
Jason Chan
Current PhD researcher specialising in LLM reasoning, with prior experience as a financial services regulatory lawyer
Sheffield, United Kingdom | JLYChan1@sheffield.ac.uk
Education
PhD in Natural Language Processing University of Sheffield | 2023 – present
Research theme: Towards Rational and Human-like Reasoning with Large Language Models (LLMs)
Supervisors: Robert Gaizauskas, Zhixue Zhao
MSc Speech and Language Processing University of Edinburgh | 2023
Distinction
Dissertation: Controlling phonation modes in singing voice synthesis (supervised by Simon King)
Graduate Diploma in Law; Legal Practice Course BPP University | 2019, 2020
Distinction in both courses
Dissertation: An imbalance of interests and rights under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods
BA Philosophy University College London | 2018
First (Dawes Hicks Prize recipient)
Publications
RULEBREAKERS: Challenging LLMs at the Crossroads between Formal Logic and Human-like Reasoning
ICML 2025
Jason Chan, Robert Gaizauskas, Zhixue Zhao
Work Experience
Associate (Financial Services Regulatory)
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, London, UK | March - September 2022 | 6 months
- Drafted and reviewed terms of business for financial institutions including fintech and trading platforms
- Advised on regulatory risks associated with cryptocurrencies, NFTs and electronic share certificates
- Supervised trainee solicitors and paralegals working on client matters
Secondee
LawtechUK (an initiative backed by the Ministry of Justice to drive digital transformation in the legal sector) | March 2021 - September 2021 | 6 months
- Wrote content for two foundational courses in Artificial Intelligence and Automation, translating complex technical concepts into accessible learning materials for legal professionals
- Researched use cases, engaged with stakeholders (academia, industry and government) and produced summaries of roundtable discussions on topics such as online dispute resolution, smart contracts and federated learning
Trainee Solicitor
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, London, UK | March 2020 - March 2022 | 2 years
- Assisted in project finance transactions, prepared contractual documents, coordinated signings and managed CP checklists
- Conducted legal research and drafted advice on financial regulatory matters under UK and EU law (MiFID/MiFIR, EMIR, SFTR, RAO and FPO)
- Assisted in adjudication and litigation proceedings, drafted witness statements and interparty correspondence and prepared document bundles
Projects and Academic Activities
Graduate Teaching Assistant for two MSc-level modules
(Machine Learning & Adaptive Intelligence; Natural Language Processing)
University of Sheffield | September 2024 - May 2025 | 9 months
Chamber Music Club Archive Project
Ongoing solo project to digitise and transform the concert programme archive (70+ years) of a university chamber music club into a searchable, structured database
April 2024 - present
- Designed the database schema for key information such as composer, instrumentation and performers
- Implementing the pipeline to extract structured outputs from free-form text using open-sourced LLMs and the Outlines library
AI Conversational Assistant for Drive-Thru Restaurants
Building a prototype conversational assistant to automate and streamline the food ordering process in a noisy drive-thru environment (PhD foundation year group project)
October 2023 - March 2024 | 7 months
- Wrote Python scripts for data generation and contributed to the recording and transcription of an 8-hour audio corpus
- Surveyed and evaluated open-sourced models for speech processing components including acoustic echo cancellation, speech enhancement and ASR (e.g. OpenAI Whisper, models on HuggingFace)
Skills
- Programming Languages: Python (5+ years)
- ML/Data Science Frameworks: PyTorch, Keras/Tensorflow, scikit-learn, pandas, numpy
- Languages/tools used in MSc and PhD taught courses: Java (software design), C/CUDA (parallel computing with GPUs), R (statistical analysis), Festival (speech synthesis)
Languages
- English, Cantonese: Native
- Mandarin: Proficient
- German: Intermediate (B1)