Yunan Liu

Associate Professor

Yunan Liu joined the department as an assistant professor in 2011. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University and his MS and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. He was born and grew up in Beijing, China, where he attended the number 4 high school. In 2024, Liu moved to an adjunct faculty position so he could join Amazon as an Amazon Scholar, where he has worked closely with Amazon’s Customer Service Department and Inventory Planning Control Department.

In his free time Liu enjoys running, rock climbing and basketball. he also enjoys making music with a guitar and ocarina.

Research Interests

Liu’s research interests include stochastic modeling, applied probability, simulation, queueing theory, optimal control and reinforcement learning, with applications to customer contact centers, healthcare, supply chain and transportation systems. He has been published in journals including:

  • Operations Research
  • Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
  • Production and Operations Management
  • INFORMS Journal on Computing
  • IISE Transactions
  • Naval Research Logistics
  • Stochastic Systems
  • European Journal of Operational Research
  • Queueing Systems

Education

DegreeProgramSchoolYear
Ph.D.Operations ResearchColumbia University2011
MSOperations ResearchColumbia University2008
BSElectrical EngineeringTsinghua University2002

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Publications

Online Learning and Optimization for Queues with Unknown Arrival Rate and Service Distribution
Chen, X., Hong, G., & Liu, Y. (2026, February 18), Operations Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2023.0304
Order Ahead for Pickup: Promise or Peril?
Sun, K., Liu, Y., & Yang, L. (2026, February 18), Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2024.0865
Proactive Remote Operation of Automated Vehicles: Supporting human controllability
Feng, J., Bai, X., Liu, Y., & Cunningham, C. M. (2026). , . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-8440-0_107-2
Proactive Remote Operation of Automated Vehicles: Supporting human controllability
Feng, J., Bai, X., Liu, Y., & Cunningham, C. M. (2025). , . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-8440-0_107-1
Capacity planning to cope with demand surges in fourth-party logistics networks under chance-constrained service levels
Jiang, S., Huang, M., Liu, Y., Zhang, Y., & Wang, X. (2024, December 31), Computers & Operations Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2024.106956
Mail back or in-store dropoff? Optimal design of product-exchange policies in omnichannel retailing systems
Sun, K., Liu, Y., & Li, X. (2024, January 17), Omega. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2023.103024
Service Level Prediction in Non-Markovian Nonstationary Queues: A Simulation-Based Deep Learning Approach
Garyfallos, S., Liu, Y., Barlet-Ros, P., & Cabellos-Aparicio, A. (2024, December 15). , . https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC63780.2024.10838828
An Online Learning Approach to Dynamic Pricing and Capacity Sizing in Service Systems
Chen, X., Liu, Y., & Hong, G. (2023, June 12), Operations Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2020.612
An Online Learning Approach to Dynamic Pricing and Capacity Sizing in Service Systems
Chen, X., Liu, Y., & Hong, G. (2023, June 20), Operations Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2020.0612
Improving Workers’ Musculoskeletal Health During Human-Robot Collaboration Through Reinforcement Learning
Xie, Z., Lu, L., Wang, H., Su, B., Liu, Y., & Xu, X. (2023, May 22), Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Vol. 5. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187208231177574

View all publications via NC State Libraries

Yunan Liu