Feng is currently a Chair Professor in the School of Economics and Management in Tsinghua University. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Mathematics, Statistics and Industrial Engineering,State Farm Companies Foundation Endowed Professor, Director of Actuarial Science and the Founding Director of Predictive Analytics and Risk Management in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. Feng was also the Faculty Lead for the Finance and Insurance Sector at the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partnership Institute, responsible for promoting and coordinating research collaboration and technology transfer with the State of Illinois and Chicago’s financial industry. While working in Illinois, he founded the Illinois Risk Lab, which provides experiential learning opportunities in areas of risk analytics for students from all backgrounds and consulting services to corporate partners. Feng led the development of Actuarial and Risk Management Sciences at the University of Illinois, establishing a comprehensive education system for both professional training and practical research, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degree programs. Feng also promoted the integration of education and research with other academic units on risk sciences and emerging technology. He led the creation of the MS degree program in Predictive Analytics and Risk Management jointly supported by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Gies College of Business. He also led the development of a cross-campus research center on risk sciences at the University of Illinois.

Feng served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Visiting Professors to the Institute of Computing and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research at the University of New South Wales, Technical University of Munich supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts, a Distinguished Professor at the College of Finance and Statistics in Hunan University.

Feng currently serves as a Co-Editor of a premier actuarial science academic journal North American Actuarial Journal, and an Associate Editor or an Editor for several other international academic journals including Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Annals of Actuarial Science, Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Quantitative Finance and Economics.

Financial Technology

Social Insurance

Actuarial Science

Insurance and Actuarial Science

Social Security and Retirement Finance

Emerging Business Analytics and Optimization

Global Risks, Sustainability, Governance and Market Solutions

Blockchain Technology with Financial Applications, Global Risks and Governance

Feng published over forty papers on leading academic journals in actuarial science, quantitative finance and applied probability. His main contributions include but are not limited to:

(1) Computational risk management of equity-linked insurance: pricing, embedded option, reserving and risk capitals, hedging, etc. His book, An Introduction to Computational Risk Management of Equity-Linked Insurance, systematically exploited computational methods both from current practices and academic research for risk management and has been included as a designated textbook for the Society of Actuaries’ fellowship exam, Quantitative Finance.

(2) Pension and policy analysis: Regulations and laws on retirement systems in the United States are often based on lobbying and qualitative opinions. It is increasingly important to base legislation on quantitative and fact-based analysis. Feng was invited by the State of Illinois’ House of Representatives Personnel and Pension Committee to perform actuarial analysis for a legislative proposal for pension obligation bonds. Feng served as an expert witness in a public hearing at the state capitol in 2018.

(3) Decentralized Finance and Insurance: While there is a rich literature on the engineering infrastructure of blockchain technology, less is known for the quantitative basis of tokenomics for DeFi and DeIn applications, particularly in areas of market risks. Feng studied the mechanisms of emerging business models on decentralized risk sharing, such as pricing by stake, proxy voting for underwriting and claims, etc. His work received several best paper awards. The book, Decentralized Insurance: Technical Foundation of Business Models, has been designated as a textbook for the Society of Actuaries’ fellowship exam, Foundations of Corporate Finance and Enterprise Risk Management.

(4) Market and governance solutions for global risks: The world faces common risks from natural and anthropogenic disasters, such as population aging, climate change, pandemics, etc. It is an increasingly critical and complex issue for governments and corporations around the world to develop market and governance solutions in response to these global challenges. Feng’s work included the use of actuarial techniques and epidemiological models to study the planning, stocking, temporal-spatial allocations of critical medical resources, the impact of healthcare, disaster responses and other public health policies on pandemics.

Feng is a passionate advocate for academic-industry partnerships through his involvement at professional organizations and entrepreneurial development. Currently serving as the Vice Chair of the Society of Actuaries’ Research Executive Committee. Served as the Chair of the Society of Actuaries’ Education and Research Section Council and a member of the InsurTech Advisory Council. He provided consulting services to many enterprises and startups. Led several consulting projects for the Society of Actuaries, the Casualty Actuarial Society on industry-wide surveys and research studies on emerging technologies. Led or participated in several research projects with industry leaders such as Intel Labs and Cisco on privacy preservation and federated learning. Founded the non-profit organization, In2Sure Foundation, whose mission is to promote the education, science and technology development of distributed technologies and risk management.

2023  Jeffrey Heywood Prize, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

2022  Michael Colla Award for Mathematics Related to Medicine, University of Illinois.

2021  Best Paper Award, ASTIN Colloquium, the International Association of Actuaries.

2020  Best of 2020, Annual Meeting of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

2019  Best Paper Award, Quantitative Methods in Finance, Global Association of Risk Professionals.

2016  Helen Petit Professorial Scholar, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,  University of Illinois.

2012  Research Fellow Award, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.