Yuen Yuen Ang is the Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. She is an award-winning scholar, author, and teacher, who has been invited to speak at over 500 venues around the world on China’s political-economic trajectory, China’s relations with the US and the world, and adaptive development in a multipolar, disrupted world.

Research: Her research has earned awards across political science, economics, and sociology. Her books, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016) and China's Gilded Age (2020), are both recommended by The Economist and described as “game-changing.” She is the inaugural recipient of the Theda Skocpol Prize from the American Political Science Association for “impactful contributions to the study of comparative politics,” and the Peter Katzenstein Prize (political economy), Viviana Zelizer Prize (economic sociology), Douglass North Award (institutional economics), and Alice Amsden Award (socio-economics). She was also named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow for “high-caliber scholarship that applies fresh perspectives to some of the most pressing issues of our times.” The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) produced a 7-part video series on Ang’s books, which has garnered over a million views.   

Public engagement: Ang contributes her expertise to public engagement and policy advising. She serves as a Trustee of the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, a multinational board that upholds the principles of journalistic independence, integrity, and freedom from bias. Apolitical (UK) named her one of the world's "100 Most Influential Academics in Government” for “research that resonates with policymakers and has the potential to steer the direction of government." She has testified before the US-China Economic & Security Commission and consulted the US State Department and various national and international development agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  

Media: She writes for broad audiences in outlets such as Boston Review, The Ideas Letter, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times, with Foreign Affairs naming her writing as among their "Best of Books" and "Best of Print." She has been profiled in American, Chinese, Indonesian, and European outlets, including CGTN’s Visionaries, Die Zeit, Economy Chosun, Endgame, Freakonomics Radio, The Ezra Klein Show, The Paper, among others.

Current research and programs: (1) A series of articles, speeches, and an ongoing book project on “Polytunity” (doing development in a time of disruption) and “Adaptive Political Economy.” (2) A project funded by the US National Science Foundation on Chinese policy communication. (3) China’s economic paradox of a tech boom paired with a growth slowdown, including recent articles on Chinese industrial policies and innovation outcomes. (4) In addition to her research, Prof. Ang leads “The World and US-China” Dinner Roundtable Series in DC.

A Singaporean citizen, Ang received her BA from Colorado College and her PhD from Stanford University. Her office is at the JHU Bloomberg Center in Washington DC.