Jianan is currently a Research Fellow at the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance (AEF), and the Secretary of the Centre for Innovative and Sustainable Finance (CISF) at University of Portsmouth.

Before joining Portsmouth, Jianan obtained his PhD in Finance at the University of Edinburgh (2017-2021), passing viva with Grade A in 2022 with no corrections. He then served as a Post-doctoral Researcher in the Department of International Developmentat at the University of Oxford (2021-2022).

Jianan has multidisciplinary research interests spanning  Corporate/Household Finance, Financial Technology, Experimental / Digital Economics, Innovation, and Development Studies. His work has been presented at leading international economic and finance conferences (e.g., AEA, AFA, EEA, FMA, RES) and published in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Financial Intermediation (ABS 4, ABDC 4*) and Research Policy (ABS 4*, FT50).

Jianan has been awarded several research grants. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) for the project " Fintech as a fence for the shock and fuel for the recovery? Lessons from the war", which collaborates with four colleagues from the department (AEF) and three scholars from Ukraine (Odessa Polytechnic National University). In Collaboration with two other Centre members, Jianan won Isambard Kingdom Brunel (IKB) Bursary Scheme in 2023.

Jianan is also taking a few external roles: part-time Research Fellow at the Centre for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies (CCES), Tsinghua University; Guest editor and Editorial board member of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies.