Ask Dr. Yujie Ruan why he chose corporate finance and he’ll tell you it goes way beyond spreadsheets.
“Corporate finance connects money to politics, climate, geography—you name it,” he says. “It’s a big enough playground to see how the real world shapes, and is shaped by, financial decisions.”
Patient Money, Patient Strategy
Ruan studies a simple but powerful question: Does the type of investor that owns a company’s bonds change how that company invests? His research says yes. Long-term holders like insurance companies act as “economic stabilizers.” Because their cash isn’t in a hurry, managers can stick with R&D and other long-range projects instead of chasing quarter-to-quarter results.
In his dissertation he shows that firms whose bonds sit mostly with insurers avoid the usual boom-and-bust cycle. They don’t splurge when credit is cheap and they don’t slam on the brakes when markets tighten, which helps keep bubbles and crashes in check.
From Texas Heat to Tech Valley
After six years in College Station, the Chengdu native is swapping Texas heat for Troy’s four distinct seasons—and plenty of faculty support.
“As a junior scholar I felt RPI and Lally would back my growth,” he says. “The Northeast’s culture and history are a bonus.”
First on his teaching wish list is a stablecoin course that mixes crypto markets, corporate finance and public policy, a sweet spot for data-minded RPI students.
A Classroom Built on Rigor and Respect
Ruan is upfront about difficulty. “If a topic is heavy on theory, I’m not watering it down. Students deserve an honest signal that it takes work,” he explains. What he does supply is plenty of intuition, real-world examples and the patience to tackle any “wrong-level” question. “How a student asks tells me how they think, so every question gets real attention.”
The big takeaway he wants each semester is logic over recipe: understand why a model exists, not just how to run it. “Ten years from now you might forget the formula, but if you know the map you’ll find your way back.”
Data at Terabyte Scale
Lots of finance researchers lean on WRDS, but Ruan jokes that he’s old-school. He still loves SAS because it wrangles one-terabyte data sets like the bond-ownership files in his dissertation. Students, he says, need to get their hands dirty with big data early, whether that’s in SAS, Python or Stata. One dream project: letting undergrads use large-language models to analyze presidential executive orders.
Quick Advice for Aspiring Quants (and Everyone Else)
- Thinking about a Ph.D.? Read a classic theory paper. If it makes sense and excites you, you’re in the right zone.
- Chasing a Wall Street quant role? Bring straight-A math skills and genuine drive; all-night risk crunching takes motivation.
- Looking for shortcuts? Skip them. “Be rigorous; luck isn’t a strategy,” he says.
The People Behind the Scholar
Ruan credits his parents for giving him the freedom to choose research over a quick paycheck, and Professor Shane Johnson at Texas A&M for mapping out every milestone of the Ph.D. process. Persistence is his hidden talent: “If I know something is good for me, I keep doing it,” he laughs—a fitting trait for someone who studies patient capital.
Life Outside the Dataset
When he’s not coding, Ruan is usually reading the Wall Street Journal, hiking, or taking long city walks. A black Americano fuels his mornings; beef, cooked any way you like, would be his desert-island food. Dream sabbatical? Cancun, as long as someone else picks up the tab.
Turning Logic into Impact
Whether he’s digging into bond ownership, debating crypto policy or guiding students through terabytes of data, Dr. Yujie Ruan sticks to one belief: patient, rigorous work beats market noise. With that approach he aims to help future engineers-turned-financiers and budding quants look past short-term sentiment and build ideas—like good investments—that last.