People 成员

The UCL China Centre is run by a group of academics from EISPS with links to the Faculty of Law and Centre for Languages and International Education. 

Academic Staff

• Li-Yun Liao:  Senior Coordinator for Mandarin and Arabic at European & International Social & Political Studies and language teacher at CLIE.
• Dr Igor Rogelja: Lecturer in Global Politics at European & International Social & Political Studies, Arts and Sciences and SELCS, Co-Director of the Centre.
• Dr Alessandro Spano: Lecturer in EU law and in Chinese law at European & International Social & Political Studies and at the Faculty of Laws, Co-Director of the Centre.

Honorary Staff

Dr Angela Tritto joined EISPS as an honorary researcher in June 2023. She is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies at the University of Brunei Darussalam. She was formerly with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In 2020 she served as Fellow of the Global Future Council of Sustainable Tourism at the World Economic Forum and she’s currently part of WEF’s Impact Group on Digital Transformation of Industries. Her most recent works examine China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia. Her publications analyze the role of public, private, and third sector organizations in affecting development outcomes and sustainability. She holds a PhD in Public Policy from the City University of Hong Kong.

Dr Konstantinos Tsimonis will join EISPS as an honorary senior research fellow in April 2023. He is a Lecturer in Chinese Society at the Lau China Institute, King’s College London. He has a PhD and an MSc from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, with an Onassis Foundation and an A. G. Leventis Foundation scholarship respectively). He previously taught courses on Chinese, East Asian and comparative politics at SOAS. He is a member of the editorial board of the People's Map of Global China, and of the Advisory Editorial Board of the Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies.

Associate Members

Marc Brunstein is Managing Partner at Habeas Corpus - Management and Strategy Consulting, a strategy and management consulting firm based in Paris (France) and Cologne (Germany), and a Visiting Lecturer at the Paris Sorbonne University.

Dr Dini Sejko  Mediator (MCIArb), Lecturer at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Research affiliate at The Fletcher Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital

Xuxin Mao  Principal Economist, The National Institute of Economic and Social Research niesr.ac.uk

Zhi Dong is an experienced professional with over 20 years of experiences in international business, foreign direct investment and international education. She has been working at the British overseas mission, local authority and the Government and is specialised in international market access, international partnership development, cross-cultural communication and business development. Over the past 10 years, Zhi has been focusing on attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into the technology sector in the UK, as a Project Manager at the UK Department for Business and Trade(DBT). Zhi holds a Master Degree of Public Administration from the Ohio State University in US and a Bachelor Degree in Sociology from Peking University in China.

Dr Yukun Shi, CFA, is an Associate Professor in Finance and co-lead of finance research cluster at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, specializing in fintech, sustainable finance, quantitative investment, and corporate finance. Yukun is a board member and the chair of the Scotland group of Chinese Economists Association (UK/Europe), and an Asian director of IFABS. He advises for Asian Development Bank Institute, CFA Institute, Office for National Statistics (UK), Moody’s Analytics, Bank of China and is a visiting professor in several top Chinese universities. 

Dr Tugce Yalcin Dual-qualified M&A Lawyer; Counsel at Taylor Wessing’s Corporate/M&A/Capital Markets group and Head of its CEE Turkish Desk; Solicitor, England and Wales; Attorney-at-law, Austria; Editorial Board Member, Thomson Reuters and Emerald Publishing.

Dr Huangnan Shen is currently an assistant professor at School of Management at Fudan University. He is also the Dean and President of the Maqiao Institute for Digital Industry Development (MIDID) in Shanghai. He also serves the role as the Chief Entrepreneurship Tutor for Sino-Europe Maqiao Innovation Park. He is affiliated as a research associate in the Harvard Growth Lab at Harvard Kennedy School. Meanwhile, he is also tutoring courses at the Fudan Sci-Tech Innovation Entrepreneurship Camp and the MBA program at Fudan. Dr Shen is a fellow at the Research Institute of Chinese Economy, Fudan University, an adjunct research fellow at the Fudan-Pingan Research Institute for Macroeconomy, and a research fellow at the Research Center for State-Owned Economy, Jilin University. Additionally, he works as the co-founder and a member of the board of directors of Core China Research Center at the University of Navarra, Spain.

Mr Li Pengxiang is a General Manager of Xinzhigu Maqiao China-Europe artificial Intelligence Industrial Park. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Zhejiang University and his MSc at Fudan University and Queen Mary University of London, former executive of several top 500 technology companies in the world. He was ever the vice president of Sino-British Science, Technology and Culture Association, Vice President of China-Europe Block chain Association.

Mr Gary Gao, admitted to the PRC Bar in 1995, is currently a partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm. Mr. Gao has in-depth understanding of corporate operations in all aspects, boasts sharp business acumen and accumulates rich experience in corporate compliance. He has assisted many multinationals, institutions and large domestic enterprises in different industries to deal with various compliance issues. In addition, Mr. Gao has a wealth of experience in cross-border arbitration, litigation, mediation and negotiation. He specializes in strategic planning for dispute resolution across multiple jurisdictions, and is familiar with the application of cross-jurisdictional law, collection and screening of evidence and application of burden of proof rules. Mr. Gao also acts as an expert witness on Chinese law in foreign litigation or arbitration proceedings, providing legal advice on Chinese substantive law and procedural law for clients and foreign legal teams.