Xin Li received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005, and the M.S. and B.S. degrees in Electronics Engineering from Fudan University in 2001 and 1998, respectively. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, and is leading the graduate programs at Duke Kunshan University (DKU). In addition, he is also overseeing all research activities and research-related compliance at DKU. His research interests include algorithms, methodologies and systems for data analysis of emerging applications such as smart manufacturing, autonomous driving, data-driven marketing and financial technologies. Dr. Xin Li received the NSF CAREER Award in 2012, two IEEE Donald O. Pederson Best Paper Awards in 2013 and 2016, the DAC Best Paper Award in 2010, two ICCAD Best Paper Awards in 2004 and 2011, the ISIC Best Paper Award in 2014, and the Cadence Academic Collaboration Award in 2018. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

Dr. Coraline Goron obtained a double Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of Warwick and the Université Libre de Bruxelles under the aegis of the Erasmus Mundus GEM program. She holds an MA in European politics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and an LLM in international and Chinese law from the China-EU School of Law at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. Before joining DKU, Coraline was a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the Wiener-Anspach Foundation at the University of Oxford China Centre.

Her research centers on environmental politics with a specific focus on China, both domestically and as an increasingly influential actor in global environmental governance. She is particularly interested in the contentious politics of socio-ecological transformations, confronting interests, ideologies and imaginaries of the future. Her Ph.D. thesis received the Marthe Engelborghs-Bertels Prize for Sinology in May 2018. It traced the transformation of China’s regulatory institutions in the field of energy and environmental protection and analyzed their combined outcomes on the implementation of decarbonization and renewable energy policies. It draws on a vast corpus of Chinese-language documentation, including over 200 policy documents and dozens of industry journal articles, as well as interviews with Chinese industry experts and policy stakeholders.

Christopher Van Velzer serves as the chief student experience officer at DKU and the head of DKU’s Office of Student Experience. The Office of Student Experience (OSE) underscores DKU’s commitment to an integrated approach to providing world-class student services, and to building and fostering an inclusive and diverse global community focused on student success and engagement. The OSE includes Residence Life, Campus Engagement, Athletics, Counseling and Wellness Services, Chinese and International Student Services, Student Conduct, Student Accommodations Services and the Office of Case Management, Career Services and the Office of Global Education.

Van Velzer has worked in higher education for 22 years and has spent the last 16 years as an international education leader in the Shanghai-Jiangsu region of China. His early career in higher education was inspired by his student leadership experiences and led to roles in university fundraising and student affairs, which included overseeing student organizations and Greek life.

After moving to China, he established and was appointed founding director of Pepperdine University’s Shanghai international study away center in partnership with Fudan University (2007-2012). He subsequently served in senior Shanghai-based roles for two of the largest U.S.-based study abroad providers, the Council on International Education Exchange (China director) and the Institute for Study Abroad (resident director and director of global learning and assessment).

Van Velzer’s research interests focus on intercultural competency, models of global learning, and inclusive excellence. His most recent publication is a co-authored chapter in the book, “A House Where All Belong: Redesigning Education Abroad for Inclusive Excellence” (The Forum on Education Abroad, 2022).

He received his bachelor’s degree in Humanities (2001) and a master’s in Business Administration (2005) from Pepperdine University, followed by a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Azusa Pacific University (July 2019).

Outside of work, Van Velzer enjoys urban and street photography and his training as an operatic tenor. He also wrote the lyrics for DKU’s alma mater song, “With Voices Raised”.

Dr. Kai Huang is the Dean of Research and Lab Infrastructure at Duke Kunshan University. He oversees several functional units, including the Research Support Office, Lab Management Office and Lab Safety Office, and provides effective support for faculty members to pursue their teaching and research activities.

Dr. Huang is a soft matter physicist with a research interest in understanding, predicting and eventually controlling the collective behavior of particulate materials through laboratory experiments, numerical and analytical approaches, in order to shed light on widespread applications in civil and process engineering, geoscience and other areas. He is also interested in the acoustical design of traditional European and Chinese opera theaters.

Huang has a B.Sc. in electronic engineering and a Ph.D. in physical acoustics from Nanjing University. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization, before joining the University of Bayreuth as a group leader and lecturer for both undergraduate and graduate level courses. His research activity was funded by German Research Foundation, Sino-German Center for Research Promotion, and the State of Bavaria. In 2014, he obtained habilitation in physics, a scientific and pedagogic qualification for supervising PhD students independently in Bavaria, Germany.

Bonnie Liu is the Chief of Staff and Director of Special Projects at Duke Kunshan University (DKU), reporting to the Executive Vice Chancellor. In this role, she leads Board of Trustees meeting preparations, facilitates cross-functional collaborations, and oversees new projects and strategic initiatives. She also served as the CFO delegate for seven months during the university CFO’s absence.
Previously, Bonnie was the Director of Career Services at DKU, bringing 19 years of experience across financial services, international higher education, and education startups in both China and the U.S. Before joining DKU, she was the Assistant Director of the Career Management Center at the Simon Business School, University of Rochester. Since joining DKU in 2014, she built the university’s career services function from the ground up, serving students, alumni, and employers for four years. She was also part of the leadership team that organized major events, such as the Duke International Forum.

Roger Fan takes the position as the Senior Director of Operations and University EHS, reporting to the executive vice chancellor. His main job responsibilities will be providing operational leadership for the Duke Kunshan University (DKU) campus while developing and overseeing a variety of campus operations and EHS functions that will support the advancement of core business operations and programmatic endeavors of the university. Along with overseeing the campus services, building, engineering, university-wide EHS, housing and conference center, conference planning and event services, Roger also takes the role of the emergency coordinator in the emergency preparedness task force.

Roger joined Duke Kunshan University on July 1st, 2015. Before his current assignment he has taken the roles within DKU as Director of Operations, Associate Director for Innovation Building, and Senior Project Consultant for Innovation building and Phase II planning.

Prior to joining DKU, Roger worked in JLL as a facility management consultant and senior project manager for Duke Kunshan University Phase I Project, and facility account manager to deliver facility management services for other JLL clients.

Roger received his diploma in electrical engineering in 1991 and a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1996. He has over 25 years of working experience for both overseas, international and state-owned organizations in multi-industries with solid knowledge and management skills in the area of real estate, engineering, information technology as well as facility and project management.

Over 20 years' experience in direct and indirect procurement. Micky is now the Procurement Director in Kunshan Duke University. Micky is responsible for university procurement activities and campus phase 2 EPC and FFE government procurement.

Micky has solid experience in setting up Indirect Procurement Team Organization, defining proper KPIs, designing and implementing procurement policy, process and system, strong capability of leading team through company transformation and integration, she has successfully led company’s ERP system launch, implemented Procurement outsourcing as function and process head, also executed the BPO outsourcing termination after MA.