Dr Zhengge Zhou, Resident Fellow at UWA
UWA Business School
Bio
Dr Zhengge Zhou completed his BSc in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at Sichuan University (2015) before moving to Europe for postgraduate study. He earned an MSc in Financial Mathematics from University College London (2017) and an MSc in Mathematics through the Berlin Mathematical School programme at TU Berlin (2019). He then completed a PhD in Finance at Warwick Business School (2025).
During his PhD, Dr Zhou was affiliated with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology where he worked first as a Research Assistant (August 2023 – August 2025) and subsequently as a Research Fellow (August 2025 – January 2026).
In 2026, Dr Zhou joined The University of Western Australia Business School as a Lecturer in Digital Finance. His research focuses on FinTech, financial market structure and economic networks. His current projects examine the design of trading mechanisms in blockchain-based exchange markets and argue that many prevailing mechanisms are ad hoc. His broader research agenda studies how blockchain trading platforms should be structured, whether it is necessary to retain financial intermediation in a blockchain economy and the role of regulation in an AI-driven economy.
At UWA, Dr Zhou contributes to teaching in trading and market microstructure, blockchain technology and digital finance.
Academic Focus
Dr Zhou’s areas of expertise include trading and market design, blockchain economics and network-based financial systems. At UWA, his research focuses on the design of financial markets and the economic implications of blockchain technology. Ongoing projects include developing benchmark trading mechanisms for blockchain-based decentralised exchanges and analysing whether it is cost-efficient to retain financial intermediaries in a blockchain-based economy.
Research Summary
Dr Zhou’s research focuses on how modern financial markets can be designed and organised more efficiently, particularly in settings characterised by economic network effects or enabled by blockchain technology. His work spans several connected areas, including:
Addressing market inefficiencies (such as asset misallocation and impaired price discovery) arising from network effects created by persistent trading relationships between some traders and dealers in over-the-counter markets
Mechanism design for blockchain-based trading systems, including automated market-making algorithms that allocate trading activity across market participants in a decentralised manner
Studying the implications of blockchain technology for barter-like economic systems, including the welfare and efficiency consequences of removing traditional financial intermediaries in intermediary-free environments
Work and Education History
2026 Lecturer in Digital Finance, UWA Business School
2025 – 2026 Research Fellow, Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, Warwick Business School
2023 – 2025 Research Assistant, Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, Warwick Business School
2019 – 2025 PhD in Finance, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK
2018 – 2019 MSc in Mathematics, Berlin Mathematical School, TU Berlin, Germany
2016 – 2017 MSc in Financial Mathematics, University College London, UK
2012 – 2015 BSc in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Sichuan University, China
Connect
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