Yang Yan (燕阳) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, working on the ERC project 'Digital Governance in China'. His postdoctoral research aims to illustrate the disparities within the digital transformation agendas of Chinese local governments and decision-makers, seeking to explain the factors behind these variations. He earned a bachelor's degree in public administration and a doctorate in management science and engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China. Before joining FU, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University. His research interests include Chinese domestic politics, public policy processes and digital transformation. His research has been published or is forthcoming in social science journals such as the Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Administration & Society, and China: An International Journal.