Assistant Director of the IIA, and also undertakes the position of Centre for Economic Policy. He graduated from the National University of Singapore and the Australian National University in 2012 with a joint degree in economics and actuarial studies with first-class honors. He received his Ph.D. in public economics and public policy from the University of Melbourne in 2020. Before studying for Ph.D., he worked as a research associate at the Asia Competitiveness Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.  He jointed the Advance Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) in 2021 as a postdoctoral fellow. 

Dr. Yuan has conducted in-depth research on China's pension insurance system. He has carried out field studies in more than 20 counties and cities in 10 provincial-level regions across China and interviewed many local officials responsible for the management of pension insurance, relevant scholars, people in the financial industry, entrepreneurs, and residents. He has practical experience in the insurance industry and is familiar with the development of financial system and insurance industry in Singapore and Australia. He is an Associate of the Australian Institute of Actuaries. He used to conduct research in natural science. He has used randomised double-blind control experiment as the research paradigm to study social science topics in recent years, and has published several papers in high quality journals. He also published a monograph and a book chapter on China's social security and pension system reform.