Yafei Liu

PhD Candidate in Finance · Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU Business School

Bio

I am a first-year PhD candidate in Finance at the NTNU Business School in Trondheim, Norway, working on biodiversity risk in corporate finance. My doctoral project consists of three articles: (i) supply-chain network analysis for biodiversity footprint accounting, (ii) geospatial integration for corporate biodiversity impact assessment, and (iii) the link between biodiversity management practices and firm performance.

In parallel, I work as a Quantitative Researcher at Spartan Strategies in Zurich, where I build arbitrage-free implied-volatility surfaces, market-data pipelines for derivatives, and systematic delta-neutral hedging strategies. Before the PhD I completed the Joint Master of Quantitative Finance at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, and a BBA in Quantitative Finance and Economics at National Tsing Hua University.

I grew up in mainland China and have studied or worked in Norway, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States — a path that shapes how I think about sustainable finance as both a global modeling problem and a local one.

Research Experiences

ESG Research Assistant at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — 2023-08 – 2024-07
Investment Analyst Associate at Beijing Fanhai Chengfeng Management Consulting Co., Ltd — 2023-07 – 2023-08
Data Analyst at Stanford University — Psychology Lab — 2020-03 – 2020-05
Operations & Marketing Analyst at Zhiyu Tech Co., Ltd — 2019-07 – 2019-10

Research Interests

Education

PhD in Finance · Norwegian University of Science and Technology2024-10 – Present
Joint Master of Quantitative Finance · University of Zurich & ETH Zurich2021-09 – 2024-07
Bachelor of Business Administration in Quantitative Finance and Economics · National Tsing Hua University2017-09 – 2021-06
Exchange Student, Department of Humanities · University of Oslo2019-08 – 2020-06

News

2026-05Released ntnu_beamer_template and ntnu_beamer_seminar — NTNU-branded LaTeX Beamer templates for talks and research seminars.
2024-10Started my PhD in Finance at NTNU Business School, working on biodiversity risk and corporate performance.
2024-10Joined Spartan Strategies (Zurich) as a Quantitative Researcher.
2024-07Graduated from the Joint Master of Quantitative Finance at the University of Zurich & ETH Zurich.