Profile

Academic biography

Yuan Zhang is an Associate Professor of Finance at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. His research spans asset pricing, financial intermediation, and machine learning in financial markets. He has published in the Review of Financial Studies and is currently developing AI-driven methods for factor modeling and portfolio optimization, including work on benchmarking large language models in quantitative finance at ICLR 2026. He received his Ph.D. from the Swiss Finance Institute at EPFL and was a visiting Ph.D. student at MIT Sloan.

Appointments

Academic appointments

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

  • Associate Professor of Finance, 2025-present
  • Assistant Professor of Finance, 2018-2025

Education

Training and degrees

Swiss Finance Institute, EPFL, Switzerland

  • Ph.D. in Finance, 2012-2018
  • Advisor: Prof. Semyon Malamud

EPFL, Switzerland

  • M.S. in Financial Engineering, 2009-2011

Sichuan University, China

  • B.A. in Finance, 2005-2009

Experience

Research and academic experience

MIT Sloan School of Management

  • Visiting Ph.D. Student, 2016

Swiss Finance Institute, EPFL

  • Teaching Assistant, Advanced Derivatives, 2015-2017
  • Teaching Assistant, Econometrics, 2014
  • Teaching Assistant, Stochastic Calculus I, 2013
  • Teaching Assistant, Financial Econometrics, 2013

CEPREMAP, Ecole Normale Superieure

  • Research Assistant, 2011-2012

Awards

Grants and awards

  • National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Program (72072108), participant, 2021-2024
  • SUFE Faculty Start-up Grant, 2018
  • Best Teaching Assistant Award, EPFL, 2016
  • Travel Grant, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, UBC, 2014
  • Ph.D. Program Grant, Swiss Finance Institute, 2012