Wenjun Zhao

Assistant Professor of Mathematics     Department of Mathematics     Wake Forest University

Contact

127 Manchester Hall, PO Box 7388, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

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About me

I am an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Wake Forest University. My research develops geometric and statistical methods for learning structure and dynamics from distribution-valued data. A central tool in my work is optimal transport, which I use to study biological systems, including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, gene regulatory dynamics, and morphological shape analysis.

Previously, I was a PIMS–Simons Fellow (2024–2025) at the University of British Columbia, associated with the Kantorovich Initiative, and the inaugural LFZ Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics (postdoctoral position, 2021–2024) at Brown University. I received my Ph.D. from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University in 2021, advised by Professor Esteban G. Tabak, and my B.Sc. from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2016.

Broadly, I am interested in how geometry, probability, and computation can be combined to uncover mechanisms and causal structure in complex biological systems. My current research is supported by AMS and Simons Foundation.

In addition to research, I am deeply committed to teaching and mentorship. I received the UBC Mathematics Postdoctoral Teaching Award (departmental award given annually to two postdoctoral fellows) and Brown University's Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching (a university-wide award presented to 2–3 faculty members each year).

Check out our upcoming workshop at NITMB on shape dynamics!