Hello! I am Qian (pronounced Chee-an), a Ph.D. candidate in Management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. My research lies at the intersection of entrepreneurship and strategy, with a focus on founder demographics. I study how entrepreneurs overcome early-stage constraints through the lens of human capital and institutional change.

My work has been published in Management Science and Organization Science, and has been recognized with the 2026 Bradford-Osborne Research Award (UW Foster & UCLA) and the 2025 DRUID Steven Klepper Award for Best Young Scholar Paper.

I am on the 2026–2027 academic job market.