Prof. SUN Zhankun
孫占坤教授
Associate Professor
PhD - Statistics and Operations Research (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)
BE - Industrial Engineering (Tsinghua University)
Research Areas
Stochastic Modeling
Optimal Control
Healthcare Operations
Battery Swapping Management
Biography
I received my bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University and my Ph.D. in Statistics and Operations Research from UNC Chapel Hill. My research interests are within the area of modeling, analysis, and control of stochastic systems with applications arising from healthcare operations and smart-city operations. I received the College Research Excellence Awards in 2023. Find more about my research here: https://zhanksun.github.io/
Administrative Assignments
| Period | Name | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 8/2025 - Now | MBA Program | Director |
| 3/2025 - Now | College of Biomedicine | College Board Member |
| 7/2022 - 7/2025 | BBA in Global Operations Management | Director |
Awards
| Award Title | Institution |
|---|---|
| Outstanding Teaching Performance (top 5% of teachers) | City University of Hong Kong |
| College Research Excellence Awards | City University of Hong Kong |
| Outstanding Teaching Performance (top 5% of teachers) | City University of Hong Kong |
| Best Student Paper Competition | POMS-Hong Kong International Conference |
| Best Service Science Student Paper Award | INFORMS Conference on Service Science |
| Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellowship | Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary |
| Excellence in Teaching Award | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill |
| Graduate Fellowship | Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute |
| George E. Nicholson Award | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill |
Research Grant
PI: "Joint Physician and Nurse Staffing with Time-Varying Demand in Emergency Departments", General Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Amount: 908,000 (2025-2027), Zhankun Sun
co-PI: "Smart Healthcare – Accessibility, Quality and Affordability", Theme-based Research Fund - HKU Shenzhen Research Institutes, Amount: CNY5,000,000 (2023-2027), with Haipeng Shen, etc.
co-PI: "Investigation of Time-dependent Physician Productivity and Application in Emergency Department Waiting Time Management", General Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Amount: 644,872 (2023-2025), with Huiyin Ouyang
PI: "Investigation of Fast-Track Routing Decisions and Its Impact in Hospital Emergency Departments ", General Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Amount: 555,933 (2022-2024), with Yuqian Xu
co-PI: "Hong Kong RECAP: A Systematic Response Strategy for Novel Infectious Disease Pandemic", Collaborative Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Amount: 3,952,247 (2021-2023), with Huiyin Ouyang, Eric Park, Haipeng Shen, Dan Yang
PI: "Investigation of Patient Prioritization Behaviors in Hospital Emergency Departments ", General Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Amount: 651,380 (2020-2022), Zhankun Sun
PI: "Prediction and Optimal Control of Triage Nurse Ordering: A Data-Driven Approach to Improve Patient Flow in Hospital Emergency Departments", General Research Fund (ECS) - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Amount: 483,340 (2018-2020), Zhankun Sun
PI: "Promoting Practice-Based Learning in Gateway Education Class", Teaching Start-Up Grant - City University of Hong Kong, (2017-2018), Zhankun Sun
PI: "Predicting Triage Standing Orders in Hospital Emergency Departments", Start-Up Grant - City University of Hong Kong, Amount: 300,000 (2016-2018), Zhankun Sun
Publications
He, Xinyu; Li, Lishuai; Mo, Yanfang; Sun, Zhankun; Qin, S. Joe / Air Corridor Planning for Urban Drone Delivery: Complexity Analysis and Comparison via Multi-Commodity Network Flow and Graph Search. January 2025; In: Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Vol. 193, pp. 103859
Hao, Shuai; Sun, Zhankun; Xu, Yuqian / Emergency Care Efficiency vs. Quality: Uncovering Hidden Consequences of Fast-Track Routing Decisions. January 2025; In: Manufacturing and Service Operations Management. Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 75-93
Taiwo, Enayon Sunday; Zaerpour, Farzad; Menezes, Mozart B.C.; Sun, Zhankun / A complexity-based measure for emergency department crowding. 2024; In: International Journal of Operations and Production Management. Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 768-789
Li, Wenhao; Sun, Zhankun; Hong, L. Jeff / Who Is Next: Patient Prioritization under Emergency Department Blocking. May 2023; In: Operations Research. Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 821–842
Wang, Zixiang; Liu, Ran; Sun, Zhankun / Physician Scheduling for Emergency Departments Under Time-Varying Demand and Patient Return. April 2022; In: IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.
Zaerpour, Farzad; Bivank, Marco; Ouyang, Huiyin; Sun, Zhankun / Scheduling of Physicians with Time-Varying Productivity Levels in Emergency Departments. February 2022; In: Production and Operations Management. Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 645-667
Hu, Bin; Sun, Zhankun / Managing Self-Replicating Innovative Goods. January 2022; In: Management Science. Vol. 68, No. 1, pp. 399–419
Ouyang, Huiyin; Wang, Junyan; Sun, Zhankun; Lang, Eddy / The impact of emergency department crowding on admission decisions and patient outcomes. January 2022; In: American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Vol. 51, pp. 163-168
Sun, Zhankun; Argon, Nilay Tanık; Ziya, Serhan / When to Triage in Service Systems with Hidden Customer Class Identities?. January 2022; In: Production and Operations Management. Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 172-193
Zheng, Zhuang; Sun, Zhankun; Pan, Jia; Luo, Xiaowei / An integrated smart home energy management model based on a pyramid taxonomy for residential houses with photovoltaic-battery systems. September 2021; In: Applied Energy. Vol. 298
Li, Yutong; Zhu, Ruoqing; Qu, Annie; Ye, Han; Sun, Zhankun / Topic Modeling on Triage Notes With Semiorthogonal Nonnegative Matrix Factorization. 2021; In: Journal of the American Statistical Association. Vol. 116, No. 536, pp. 1609-1624
Sun, Zhankun; Argon, Nilay T.; Ziya, Serhan / Patient Triage and Prioritization under Austere Conditions. October 2018; In: Management Science. Vol. 64, No. 10, pp. 4471–4489