Luyao (Sunshine) Zhang is Assistant Professor of Economics and Senior Research Scientist at the Data Science Research Center at Duke Kunshan University (DKU). She has an abiding passion for interdisciplinary collaborations, especially for cutting-edge research of both profound insights and practical impacts, including Computational Economics (Algorithmic Game Theory and Mechanism Design), Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, AI Trust, Human-Computer Interaction), Cryptoeconomics (Blockchain for social good, Consensus Algorithms, DeFi), Behavioral Science (Bounded Rationality, Trust, and Cooperation), and Interdisciplinary Big Data (Social Media, Sustainability, and Global Health). Her current research interests are around the application scenarios of "Blockchain +." Her publications appear in economic journals for general interest and beyond, including American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the World Economy, Nature Scientific Data, Nature Social Indicators Research, ACM CCS, AAAI/ACM AIES, IEEE International Conference on Blockchain Proceedings, Remote Sensing, Journal of Digital Earth, Data and Information Management, etc. She received Ph.D. in Economics at Ohio State University, supported by Presidential Fellowship and NSF dissertation grant. She graduated from Peking University with a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Math and Applied Math.

She has taught economics courses and beyond for students with diverse backgrounds in the U.S., Europe, and China, proposing an Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative. She has won several teaching prizes for innovation in research-oriented and project-based education. She is passionate about promoting undergraduate research and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The courses entitled "Intelligent Economics: An Explainable AI Approach" and "Computational Microeconomics" that she developed in this spirit have been listed in the undergraduate curriculum across disciplines. She is currently leading an "Industry 4.0 Open Education Resource Publication Initiatives" supported by Duke Learning Innovation Center and DKU Center for Teaching and Learning under the Carrying the Innovation Forward program. She led the Duke CS+ project entitled "Decentralized Finance: Cryptocurrency and Blockchain on the Internet Computer" with professors in Computer Science and industry pioneers. As an adjunct faculty at New York University (NYU) Shanghai, she taught statistics courses in Integrated Marketing at the School of Professional Studies and core courses in Economics such as Econometrics and Game theory in the Summer Program.

Luyao has dedicated herself to service with empathy, which she believes is one critical cornerstone of any civil society. She has served the academic community and beyond. She serves on the research policy committee, the advisory board of the mind group as social science division representative and the faculty advisor program for student care at Duke Kunshan University. She also is the associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Computational Social System and the ambassador in Shanghai for Startup Genome. She is the Founding President for SciEcon CIC, NPO registered in the UK, aiming to cultivate integrated talents in research, innovation, and leadership for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research of both profound insights and practical impacts. She was the Founding President of Dance Illumination, an NPO with 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt status to promote diverse dance histories.

She is interested in seeking creative solutions to challenging problems and transferring in-depth insights into practical impacts. She holds a blockchain strategy certificate at Oxford University and more than 30 data science certificates at IBM, Microsoft, Edx, Datacamp, Nvidia and Huawei Cloud, HarvardX, Alberta Artificial Intelligence Association, etc. She is a consultant in the global scholar program at PreScouter, working with industry pioneers on big-data paradigm shifts and digital transformations. She has completed more than 60 projects for Fintech and AI landscape stakeholders. She is also a blockchain researcher at Primitive Lane, a non-profit community focusing on the development of cutting-edge technologies, dedicated to exploring the development path of underlying technologies, and conducting basic public research and application.