• 2007 – 2011, Texas A&M University, PhD in Agricultural Economics
• 2003 – 2007, Beijing Normal University, BS in Resources Science and Engineering

Employment

• 2019 – present, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China-UK Low Carbon College, Associate Professor
• 2015 – 2019, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Agriculture and Biology, Assistant Professor
• 2014 – 2015, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria), Research Scholar
• 2011 – 2014, RTI International (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA), Research Economist

Yuquan Zhang, associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's China-UK Low Carbon College. He obtained his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University in the United States (2011), and his B.S. in Resources Science and Engineering from Beijing Normal University in China (2007). Prior to joining SJTU in 2015, he worked as a research economist at the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in the United States and thereafter as a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. His research focuses on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation, and he has demonstrated experience in GAMS programming. His research interests include, but not limited to, 1) estimating the economic and GHG emission effects of bioenergy development on agriculture and forestry; 2) evaluating the economic and environmental impacts of air quality standards; 3) developing adaptation strategies in response to climate change; 4) measurement of the economic and embodied environmental impacts of international trade policies; 5) analyses of life-cycle material flows and circularity of mineral resources; and 6) developing and applying applied mathematical programming models. Besides teaching and research, he serves as an associate deputy editor of Climatic Change and a youth editorial board member of Carbon Neutrality. He also serves on the committees of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and co-governance of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation under the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. As of Dec 2025, he published 32 journal articles, 8 book chapters, and 7 software copyright works. 

Dr. Zhang's research focuses on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation, and he has demonstrated experience in GAMS programming. His research interests include, but not limited to, 1) developing and applying applied mathematical programming models (mostly in GAMS language) for simulation and scenario analyses; 2) analyses of life-cycle material flows and circularity of mineral resources; 3) measuring the economic and embodied environmental impacts of international trade policies; and 4) developing adaptation strategies in response to climate change for socioeconomic systems. 

• National Key Research and Development Program – Technologies for and Demonstrations of Precision Management of Resources Recycling Processes, Key Participant

• National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation – Research on Management Practices of New Carbon Emitting Projects for Local Government under the Carbon Peak Goals, Key Participant

• Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation – Analyses of Potential Impacts of EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on China’s Textile Industry and Shanghai’s Response, PI

• National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Program – The Effects of and Incentivizing Responses to Imposing Environmental Goals on Agricultural Production and Economy – a Case Study of Pesticides Reduction in Shanghai, PI

• Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China – Environmental Impacts Evaluation of Free Trade Agreement: Modeling Capacity Building, PI

• Shanghai Pujiang Program (Category C: Humanities and Social Sciences) – Adoption Analysis of Smart Agricultural Machinery by Mid- and Small- Sized Farming Households in Shanghai, PI

• Shanghai Jiao Tong University New Faculty Start-up Grant – Integrated Modeling of Agriculture and Environment for the Yangtze River Delta Region, PI

1. Yang, G., Geng, Y.*, Yu, H., Zhang, Y., & Xiao, S. (2025). Investigating scandium flows and stocks in China: A dynamic material flow analysis. JOM, 77, 3600-3611.
2. Li, Y., Li, S., Luo, Y., Wang, X., Zhang, H., Zhang, Y.W.* & Song, S.** (2025). Assessing carbon emissions of facility agriculture involving photovoltaic greenhouses – insights from table grapes cultivation. Carbon Neutrality, 4, 4.
3. Tan, X., Zhong, Y., Wang, Z., Geng, Y.*, Xiao, S., Zhang, Y., & Huang, J. (2024). Mapping cerium flows in China: A dynamic material flow analysis. Resources Policy, 99, 105386.
4. Wan, Y., Yang, F., Zhang, Y.*, Yu, H., Ge, Z., & Geng, Y. (2024). Full lifecyle material flow analysis and demand forecasting of erbium in China. Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology), URL: https://link.cnki.net/urlid/11.2223.n.20241031.1118.002 (accessed 7 May 2025). (in Chinese)
5. Hu, X., Zhang, Y.W.*, Geng, Y., Yu, H., & Li, L. (2024). Exploring carbon emission effects of national-level industrial park policies on cities in China. Carbon Footprints, 3, 16.
6. Li, Y., Zhang, Y.W.*, Wang, Y., Zhou, Y., & Zhang, J. (2024). Stimulating smart automation of rice seeding in China: An exploration of planter adoption influencing factors. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 18, 101394.
7. Zheng, B., Zhang, Y. W.*, Geng, Y.**, Wei, W., Tan, X., Xiao, S., & Gao, Z. (2023). Measuring the anthropogenic cycles of light rare earths in China: Implications for the imbalance problem. Science of The Total Environment, 879, 163215.
8. Zhang, Y. W.*, Geng, Y.**, Zhang, B., Yang, S., Izikowitz, D., Yin, H., Wu, F., Yu, H., Liu, H., & Zhou, W. (2023). Examining industrial air pollution embodied in trade: implications of a hypothetical China-UK FTA. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 25, 13253-13279.
9. Izikowitz, D., Li, J., Wang, E., Zheng, B., & Zhang, Y. W.* (2023). Assessing capacity to deploy direct air capture technology at the country level – an expert and information entropy comparative analysis. Environmental Research Communications, 5, 045003.
10. Yang, S., Zhang, Y.*, & Geng, Y. (2022). An LMDI-based investigation of the changes in carbon emissions of the transportation sector in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. China Environmental Science, 42(10), 4817-4826. (in Chinese)
11. Song, X., Geng, Y.*, Zhang, Y.**, Zhang, X., Gao, Z., & Li, M. (2022). Dynamic potassium flows analysis in China for 2010 – 2019. Resources Policy, 78, 102803.
12. Zheng, B., Zhang, Y. W.*, Geng, Y., Wei, W., Ge, Z., & Gao, Z. (2022). Investigating lanthanum flows and stocks in China: A dynamic material flow analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 368, 133204.
13. Wu, D., Geng, Y.*, Zhang, Y., & Wei, W. (2022). Features and drivers of China’s urban-rural household electricity consumption: Evidence from residential survey. Journal of Cleaner Production, 365, 132837.
14. Zheng, B., Zhang, Y. W.*, Qu, F., Geng, Y., & Yu, H. (2022). Do rare earths drive volatility spillover in crude oil, renewable energy, and high-technology markets? – A wavelet-based BEKK-GARCH-X approach. Energy, 251, 123951.
15. Zhang, Y. W.*, McCarl, B. A., Cao, Z., Li, Q., Yang, S., & Liu, H. (2022). Operating pesticide use reduction within the boundary of food security in peri-urban settings. Fundamental Research, 2(4), 635-647.
16. Zheng, Y., Yu, H.*, & Zhang, Y. (2022). A bibliometric review on carbon accounting in social science during 1997 – 2020. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 9393-9407.
17. Zheng, B., Zhang, Y. W.*, Yin, H., & Geng, Y. (2021). The limited role of stock market in financing new energy development in China: An investigation using firms’ high-frequency data. Economic Analysis and Policy, 72, 651-667.
18. Zheng, B., Zhang, Y., & Chen, Y.* (2021). Asymmetric connectedness and dynamic spillovers between renewable energy and rare earth markets in China: Evidence from firms’ high-frequency data. Resources Policy, 71, 101996.
19. Wu, F., Geng, Y.*, Zhang, Y., Ji, C., Chen, Y., Sun, L., Xie, W., Ali, T., & Fujita, T. (2020). Assessing sustainability of soybean supply in China: Evidence from provincial production and trade data. Journal of Cleaner Production, 244, 119006.
20. Zhang, Y., Cao, Z., & Xilin, T. (2020). Promoting precision agriculture technologies – Case study in the United States and its implications for China. Acta Agriculturae Shanghai, 36(3), 119-125. (in Chinese)
21. Zhang, Y. W., Mu, J. E.*, Musumba, M., McCarl, B. A., Gu, X., Zhou, Y., Cao, Z., & Li, Q. (2018). The role of climate factors in shaping China’s crop mix: An empirical exploration. Sustainability, 10(10), 3757.
22. Zhang, Y. W.*, McCarl, B. A., Luan, Y., & Kleinwechter, U. (2018). Climate change effects on pesticide usage reduction efforts: a case study in China. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 23(5), 685-701.
23. Zhang, Y. W.*, McCarl, B. A., & Jones, J. P. H. (2017). An overview of mitigation and adaptation strategies for the livestock sector. Climate, 5(4), doi:10.3390/cli5040095.
24. Zhang, Y.*, Cai, Y., Beach, R. H., & McCarl, B. A. (2014). Modeling climate change impacts on US agricultural exports. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 13(4), 666-676.
25. Zhang, Y. W.*, Hagerman, A., & McCarl, B. A. (2013). Influence of climate factors on spatial distribution of Texas cattle breeds. Climatic Change, 118(2), 183-195.
26. Zhang, Y. W.*, & McCarl, B. A. (2013). US agriculture under climate change: an examination of climate change effects on ease of achieving RFS2. Economics Research International, 2013 (Article ID 763818), 1–13.
27. Beach, R. H., Zhang, Y. W., & McCarl, B. A. (2012). Modeling bioenergy, land use, and GHG emissions with FASOMGHG: model overview and analysis of storage cost implications. Climate Change Economics, 03(03), 1250012-1–1250012-34.
28. Olson, S. N., Ritter, K., Rooney, W., Kemanian, A., McCarl, B. A., Zhang, Y., Hall, S., Packer, D., & Mullet, J.* (2012). High biomass yield energy sorghum: developing a genetic model for C4 grass bioenergy crops. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 6(6), 640–655.
29. Zhang, Y., Ulgiati, S., Dong, X.*, & Pfahler, D. (2011). Using ecological criteria to develop CDM projects in Zhifanggou Valley, Loess Plateau, China. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 141(3-4), 410-416. 
30. Zhu, X., Jia, B., Pan, Y.*, Gu, X., Han, L., & Zhang, Y. (2007). Effects of various feature information on the accuracy of winter wheat planting area measurement. Transactions of the CSAE, 23(9), 122-129. (in Chinese)

Contributor to the First Place prize of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU)'s Teaching Achievement Award 2024, awarded to China-UK Low Carbon College (LCC) for “Construction of a low-carbon international specialized Master's talent training system with industry-education integration characteristics.”

The course “The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations” was reported by CCTV 13 News (Dec 2023), and received a grade of “Excellence” among the SJTU “Jiao◦Tong Global Virtual Classroom” portfolio. 

Invited as an author of Change of Climate and Ecological Environment in China: 2021, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

Author of the “Climate Change Economics” textbook series, led by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Contributed to Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change. 

Interviewed by China Daily twice (in Nov 2021 and Jan 2022), sharing opinions on China's efforts in low carbon transition. Also, interviewed by the China Meteorological News (in Jun 2022), reflecting on climate finance for adaptation.