People

Feifan Zhang

Assistant Professor of Economics, Duke Kunshan University

Email: feifan.zhang@duke.edu

His research focus is the intersection among game theory, optimization and business decisions. He is especially interested in how to design optimal mechanisms under adverse selection, moral hazard and information asymmetry. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include microeconomics, mathematical economics and game theory.

His work “Setbacks, Shutdowns and Overruns” was published in Econometrica. He has been a member of the Society of INFORMS, POMS, MSOM, ASSA and ES Society since 2020.

Zhang has a B.A. in economics from Zhejiang University. He also received M.A. in economics and Ph.D in economics from Duke University, where he also served as a research associate since 2022.

Huaxiong Huang

Professor of Mathematics, Duke Kunshan University, Co-Director of the Zu Chongzhi Center

Email: huaxiong.huang@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Professor Huang Huaxiong received his BSc in mathematics from Fudan University and PhD from the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the University of British Columbia.

Professor Huang Huaxiong is one of the leading industrial applied mathematicians in Canada with an international reputation. His research covers a wide range of topics, including fluid mechanics and scientific computing, with applications in finance, biology, physiology and medicine. He has published over 100 papers and serves on the editorial board of several academic journals.

Professor Huang Huaxiong was a JSPS visiting fellow at the University of Tokyo, a three-time Erskine Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury, and a visiting Professor at the University of Paris VI. He was a recipient of the Canadian Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society-Fields Institute Industrial Mathematics Prize, and a lifetime fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences, where he served as the Deputy Director between 2016 and 2019.

Italo Simonelli

Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Duke Kunshan University

Email: italo.simonelli@dukekunshan.edu.cn
His primary research interests lie in the fields of probability, statistics, combinatorics and graph theory. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include data science and discrete mathematics. He is the co-author of two books, “Bonferroni-type Inequalities with Applications” (Springer’s Applied Probability Series, 1996) and “Products of Random Variables: Applications to Problems of Physics and to Arithmetical Functions” (Marcel Dekker, 2004). He also has had papers published in leading academic journals including Annals of Probability, SIAM Journal of Discrete Mathematics, Theory and Decisions, and Journal of Multivariate Analysis. Simonelli has a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Temple University, Philadelphia. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he was a professor of mathematics at McDaniel College, Westminster, U.S. Previously he was an associate professor of mathematics at Texas A&M University, Commerce.

Jianbo Yue

Professor of Biology, Duke Kunshan University

Email: jianbo.yue@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Jianbo Yue’s research focuses on cell signaling related to autophagy, endosomal trafficking, metastasis, anticancer immunity, Ca2+ and reactive oxygen species (ROS). His research group established a high-content drug screening platform, and identified and/or synthesized many potent and specific modulators of autophagy or/and endosomal trafficking. His group also established both cell and animal models to evaluate the ability of these compounds to modulate viral infection, tumor metastasis and anti-cancer immunity. Jianbo founded two Biotech startup companies (6J Biotech and VBT Biotech), focusing on developing novel anti-metastatic or antiviral drugs, respectively.
Yue has been actively participating in undergraduate and graduate teaching. At DKU (2022-), he teaches Experimental Methods in Functional Genomics (BIOL403) and Integrated Biology (BIOL110). At the City University of Hong Kong (2014-2022), he taught Cellular Pathology, Molecular Biology of the Cell, Hematology, and Animal Physiology. At the University of Hong Kong (2008-2014), he taught Physiology & Pathophysiology, and Cell Biology.
Jianbo graduated from Sichuan University with a B.Sc. degree in biochemistry (1987-1991), Peking University with an M.Sc. degree in genetics (1991-1994) and Pennsylvania State University with a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology (1995-2000). After postdoc training at Stanford University (2001-2017), he moved to the University of Hong Kong to start his independent academic career as an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology. He later joined the City University of Hong Kong as an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

Kaizhu Huang

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke Kunshan University

Director of Digital Intelligence Research Center, Duke Kunshan University

Email: kaizhu.huang@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Kaizhu Huang works on machine learning, neural information processing, and pattern recognition. Before joining DKU, he was a full professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Associate Dean of research in School of Advanced Technology, XJTLU. He founded Suzhou Municipal Key Laboratory of Cognitive Computation and Applied Technology. Prof. Huang obtained his PhD degree from Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2004, Master degree from Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000, and Bachelor degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1997. He worked at Fujitsu Research Centre, CUHK, University of Bristol, National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2004 to 2012. He was the recipient of the 2011 Asia Pacific Neural Network Society Young Researcher Award. He received the best paper or book awards for seven times. He has published 9 books and over 230 international research papers including 120+ journal papers (e.g. IEEE T-PAMI, IEEE T-NNLS, IEEE T-BME, IEEE T-Cybernetics, JMLR) and 110+ conference papers (e.g. NeurIPS, IJCAI, SIGIR, UAI, CIKM, ICDM, ICML, ECML, CVPR). He serves as associated editors/advisory board members in a number of international journals and book series. He was invited as a keynote speaker in more than 30 international conferences or workshops.