Co-leading the development of psychology at UNNC, Shuai (Bela) Yuan is an associate professor in applied psychology and people analytics at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) and a visiting scholar at the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining UNNC in 2026, he was an assistant professor in HR Analytics at the University of Amsterdam from 2022 to 2025. Shuai was awarded a Ph.D. in behavioral social science from Tilburg University (the Netherlands) in 2022 and a master's degree from the same institution in 2017. For his doctoral research, he received the highly competitive China Overseas Excellent Student Award. He holds a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Peking University.

Shuai's research spans two streams. In the first, he leads interdisciplinary teams to develop novel AI algorithms that improve psychological well-being in work contexts, while examining the psychological mechanisms and individual differences underlying these improvements. In the second, he develops and evaluates advanced data-science methods to address complex issues in vocational and organizational psychology and human resource management. His work has appeared in leading psychology, HR, and methodology journals. He has secured more than 3 million RMB in research funding, including prestigious grants from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) and the European Union.

Shuai engages in knowledge transfer and science communication on a regular basis, collaborating with national and international industry partners on teaching, training, seminars, and research projects. He co-founded a psychology-themed podcast (荷你谈心), a community offering psychology workshops (荷你成长), and a non-profit organization providing lectures and training on social science statistics (荷兰心理统计联盟). He is also the lead translator of the popular psychology book The Housefly Effect.

Shuai (Bela) Yuan welcomes inquiries about research supervision and collaboration, as well as industry partnerships, training, or public speaking engagements. Please feel free to reach out via email.