Meet Yuhao Zhu, a PhD candidate at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
He will join CCL in fall 2026 to spend a year at Corvinus University of Budapest as a visiting student through the China Scholarship Council (CSC) Joint Training Programme.
Why did you decide to pursue a PhD?
My decision to pursue a PhD was shaped largely by my advisor, Professor Desheng Wu, and by my earlier research experience. When I first became his student, I was still a master’s student. During that period, I worked on several projects that used data science techniques to improve risk management models. Through these experiences, I gradually realized that applying advanced techniques to economic and managerial problems can be highly valuable in practice, but that the lack of theoretical and mechanistic understanding may also limit how far these methods can be generalized and applied.
For me, pursuing a PhD is an opportunity to study these questions in a more systematic and deeper way. It allows me not only to learn new methods and theories, but also to understand the mechanisms behind complex real-world phenomena through data, models, and theory. At the same time, my family has also always supported and encouraged me to continue my studies, which has been very important to me. Their support makes me stay out of long-term pressure for my research.
Please, tell us more about your research topic
My current research focuses on risk analysis and intelligent decision support modelling in supply chain networks. In simple terms, I am interested in what happens when firms are connected through suppliers, customers, and business partners: if one firm faces a risk, how does that risk spread through these connections, and how might it eventually affect a broader industrial chain or market?
I believe systemic risk usually does not appear out of nowhere. A firm’s production disruption, financial pressure, or operational difficulty can affect many other firms through supply chain relationships. Therefore, it is not enough to look only at the risk of a single firm. My research tries to understand, from a network and system perspective, how risks emerge, spread, and become amplified.
More specifically, I hope to combine data-driven complex network analysis and artificial intelligence methods to identify key risk points in supply chain networks. The goal is to provide decision support for firms and policymakers, helping them detect risks earlier and improve the stability and resilience of supply chain systems. I also believe that this type of research has the potential to be extended to risk management problems in other contexts.
What do you enjoy the most about doing a PhD?
One experience that had a strong influence on me was reading and deriving the models in several important papers. To truly understand them, I spent a long time working through the mathematical arguments step by step. This process was not easy, and it was certainly challenging for me, but it also showed me one of the most attractive aspects of research: a seemingly complex real-world problem can gradually become clearer through precise assumptions, logical reasoning, and mathematical expression.
So, for me, the most enjoyable part of doing a PhD is the process of learning, improving, and gradually getting closer to the essence of a problem.
Why did you choose CCL?
I hope to work with CCL because of a very natural connection with my research interests.
At the beginning of my PhD period, Prof. Wu instructed me to construct and analyze complex networks in different types of economic activities. This experience gradually developed my interest in complex networks and economic systems.
Later, in the seminar with Prof. Kocarev, after a presentation about my work and reseach plan, he suggested that the economic complexity will help me to finish my research plan about analysing systemic risks by supply chain networks. This advice was very important to me. It was through this process that I began to pay attention to CCL, as the core research platform of the economic complexity reseraches. For me, CCL’s research perspective is highly aligned with my doctoral research plan. Through this visit, I hope to extend my current work on supply chain networks and risk management toward economic complexity and the analysis of complex economic systems. In particular, I hope to better understand the relationships among economic structure, risk propagation, and system resilience.
What do you expect from your time spent abroad?
I hope to truly immerse myself in an international and interdisciplinary research environment. I would like to step outside my familiar academic setting and re-examine my research plan from broader and more diverse perspectives.
Academically, I hope to make substantial progress on my doctoral research during this visit. More importantly, I hope to enrich my work by learning from the ideas and methods of economic complexity. If I can extend my research on supply chain risk and complex networks through the perspective of economic complexity, I believe this experience will significantly strengthen my doctoral dissertation and broaden the contribution of my research.
Beyond academic work, I also look forward to growing in a new cultural and living environment. For me, studying abroad is not only a research experience, but also an important personal experience. I hope it will help me become more independent and open-minded, and allow me to better understand how researchers communicate and collaborate in an international academic environment.