I am currently an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU). During the years of my Ph.D. (mainly as a research intern at MSRA for more than three years), I have pursued the goal of embedding everything (entity, word, sentence, paragraph, etc.). In my experience as an engineer for Alibaba Cloud, I have been lucky to work with people from RISELab who kindly acknowledge my contributions and let me become a committer of Ray. Before initiating my academic career, I was a staff of DAMO Academy, building federated learning platform FederatedScope with my kind leaders and colleagues.

I have a broad interest in machine learning and data mining. Currently, our team focuses on utilizing HPC+AI to solve challenging scientific problems (e.g., controllable molecular graph generation and multi-modal scientific data representation). If you are also interested in such a direction, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me (joneswong[dot]ml[at]gmail[dot]com)!

Education

Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

  • Ph.D., Computer Applied Technology, Sep 2012 - Jun 2017
  • B.E., Software Engineering, Sep 2008 - Jun 2012

Research Experience

Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), Beijing, China

  • Research Intern, Data Mining and Enterprise Intelligence Group, Mentor: Dr. Jun Yan and Dr. Wei-Ying Ma, Feb 2016 – Apr 2017
    • Data-driven metaphor learning (demo)
  • Research Intern, Machine Learning Group, Mentor: Dr. Jianwen Zhang and Dr. Zheng Chen, Oct 2013 – Jan 2016
    • Fact-based Q&A (demo)
    • Heterogenous data embedding (product)
  • Research Intern, Web Search and Mining Group, Mentor: Dr. Zhongyuan Wang and Dr. Haixun Wang, Oct 2011 – Jun 2012
    • Fact extraction from Web tables (demo)
    • Short text representation (product)

Alibaba group and Tsinghua University joint post-doc, Advisor: Dr. Jingren Zhou and Dr. Minlie Huang, Nov 2018 - 2020

  • Reinforcement learning in E-commerce scenarios

Publications (google scholar and DBLP)

(*Equal contribution.)

  • Anjie Qiao, Yuting Chen, Junjie Xie, Weifeng Huang, Hao Zhang, Qirui Deng, Jiahua Rao, Ji Deng, Fanbo Meng, Zhen Wang, Mingyuan Xu, Hongming Chen, Jiancong Xie, Shuangjia Zheng, Yuedong Yang, Guo-Bo Li, Jinping Lei. A 3D pocket-aware lead optimization model with knowledge guidance and its application for discovery of new glutaminyl cyclase inhibitors. Briefings in Bioinformatics 2025. pdf
  • Jiahua Rao, Hanjing Lin, Jiancong Xie, Zhen Wang, Shuangjia Zheng, Yuedong Yang. Incorporating Retrieval-based Causal Learning with Information Bottlenecks for Interpretable Molecular Graph Learning. KDD 2025.
  • Jialong Chen, Bowen Deng, Zhen Wang, Chuan Chen, Zibin Zheng. Graph Neural Ricci Flow: Evolving Feature from a Curvature Perspective. ICLR 2025. pdf
  • Anjie Qiao*, Zhen Wang*, Jiahua Rao, Yuedong Yang, Zhewei Wei. Advancing Retrosynthesis with Retrieval-Augmented Graph Generation. AAAI 2025. pdf code
  • Liuyi Yao, Zhen Wang, Yuexiang Xie, Yaliang Li, Weirui Kuang, Daoyuan Chen, Bolin Ding. Is Sharing Neighbor Generator in Federated Graph Learning Safe?. TKDE 2024. pdf
  • Pin Chen, Luoxuan Peng, Rui Jiao, Qing Mo, Zhen Wang, Wenbing Huang, Yang Liu, Yutong Lu. Learning Superconductivity from Ordered and Disordered Material Structures. NeurIPS 2024. pdf
  • Tianchi Liao, Jialong Chen, Lele Fu, Zhen Wang, Zibin Zheng, Chuan Chen. A Swiss Army Knife for Heterogeneous Federated Learning: Flexible Coupling via Trace Norm. NeurIPS 2024. pdf
  • Jinjia Feng, Zhen Wang, Zhewei Wei, Hongteng Xu, Yaliang Li and Bolin Ding. Federated Heterogeneous Contrastive Distillation for Molecular Representation Learning. CIKM 2024. pdf
  • Yuedong Yang, Jiahua Rao, Jiancong Xie, Qianmu Yuan, Deqin Liu, Zhen Wang, Yutong Lu, Shuangjia Zheng. A Variational Expectation-Maximization Framework for Balanced Multi-scale Learning of Protein and Drug Interactions. Nature Communications 2024. pdf
  • Weirui Kuang*, Zhen Wang*, Zhewei Wei, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding. When Transformer Meets Large Graphs: An Expressive and Efficient Two-View Architecture. TKDE 2024. pdf
  • Zhen Wang, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Yule Li, Zhewei Wei. Exploring Neural Scaling Law and Data Pruning Methods for Node Classification on Large-scale Graphs. WWW 2024. pdf code
  • Zhen Wang*, Weirui Kuang*, Ce Zhang, Bolin Ding, Yaliang Li. FedHPO-Bench: A Benchmark Suite for Federated Hyperparameter Optimization. ICML 2023. pdf
  • Xu Chen, Zhen Wang, Shuncheng Liu, Yaliang Li, Kai Zeng, Bolin Ding, Jingren Zhou, Han Su, Kai Zheng. BASE: Bridging the Gap between Cost and Latency for Query Optimization. VLDB 2023.
  • Yuxiang Xie*, Zhen Wang*, Dawei Gao, Daoyuan Chen, Liuyi Yao, Weirui Kuang, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Jingren Zhou. FederatedScope: A Flexible Federated Learning Platform for Heterogeneity. VLDB 2023. pdf
  • Runlin Lei, Zhen Wang, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Zhewei Wei. EvenNet: Ignoring Odd-Hop Neighbors Improves Robustness of Graph Neural Networks. NeurIPS 2022. pdf
  • Jinjia Feng, Zhen Wang, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Zhewei Wei, Hongteng Xu. MGMAE: Molecular Representation Learning by Reconstructing Heterogeneous Graphs with A High Mask Ratio. CIKM 2022. pdf
  • Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Zhen Wang, Yuexiang Xie, Dawei Gao, Liuyi Yao, Daoyuan Chen, Weirui Kuang, Hongzhu Shi, Jingren Zhou. A Practical Introduction to Federated Learning. KDD 2022 Tutorial (website)
  • Zhen Wang, Weirui Kuang, Yuexiang Xie, Liuyi Yao, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Jingren Zhou. FederatedScope-GNN: Towards a Unified, Comprehensive and Efficient Package for Federated Graph Learning. KDD 2022. (ADS Track Best Paper Award). pdf
  • Zhen Wang, Yaliang Li, Zhewei Wei, Weirui Kuang, Bolin Ding. Graph Neural Networks with Node-wise Architecture. KDD 2022. pdf code
  • Dawei Gao, Yuexiang Xie, Zimu Zhou, Zhen Wang, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding. Finding Meta Winning Ticket to Train Your MAML. KDD 2022. pdf
  • Yuexiang Xie, Zhen Wang, Yaliang Li, Ce Zhang, Jingren Zhou, Bolin Ding. iFlood: A Stable and Effective Regularizer. ICLR 2022. pdf
  • Shaoyun Shi, Yuexiang Xie, Zhen Wang, Bolin Ding, Yaliang Li, Min Zhang. Explainable Neural Rule Learning. WWW 2022. pdf
  • Yiqing Xie, Zhen Wang, Carl Yang, Yaliang Li, Bolin Ding, Hongbo Deng, Jiawei Han. KoMen: Domain Knowledge Guided Interaction Recommendation for Emerging Scenarios. WWW 2022. pdf code
  • Yaliang Li, Zhen Wang, Yuexiang Xie, Bolin Ding, Ce Zhang, Kai Zeng, Rong Zhu. AutoML: From Methodology to Application. CIKM 2021 Tutorial (website).
  • Yaliang Li, Zhen Wang, Yuexiang Xie, Bolin Ding, Ce Zhang. AutoML: A Perspective where Industry Meets Academy. KDD 2021 Tutorial (website).
  • Yuexiang Xie*, Zhen Wang*, Yaliang, Li, Bolin Ding, Nezihe Merve Gürel, Ce Zhang, Minlie Huang, Wei Lin, Jingren Zhou. FIVES: Feature Interaction Via Edge Search for Large-Scale Tabular Data. KDD 2021. pdf
  • Zhao Li, Junshuai Song, Zehong Hu, Zhen Wang, Jun Gao. Constrained Dual-level Bandit for Personalized Impression Regulation in Online Ranking Systems. TKDD 2021. pdf
  • Daoyuan Chen, Yaliang Li, Minghui Qiu, Zhen Wang, Bofang Li, Bolin Ding, Hongbo Deng, Jun Huang, Wei Lin, and Jingren Zhou. AdaBERT: Task-Adaptive BERT Compression with Differentiable Neural Architecture Search. IJCAI 2020. pdf
  • Fei Xiao, Zhen Wang, Haikuan Huang, Jun Huang, Xi Chen, Hongbo Deng, Minghui Qiu. AliISA: Creating an Interactive Search Experience in E-commerce Platforms. SIGIR 2019 Demo. pdf
  • Zehong Hu, Zhen Wang, Zhao Li, Shichang Hu, Shasha Ruan, Jie Zhang. Fraud Regulating Policy for E-Commerce via Constrained Contextual Bandits. AAMAS 2019. pdf
  • Zhen Wang, Xu Hu, Zehong Hu, Minghui Qiu, Jun Huang. Chapter 5 of Artificial Intelligence for Prosthetics-challenge solutions. NurIPS 2018 RL Challenge Tech Report. pdf
  • Huaping Zhong, Jianwen Zhang, Zhen Wang, Hai Wan, Zheng Chen. Aligning Knowledge and Text Embeddings by Entity Descriptions. EMNLP 2015 Short Paper. pdf
  • Zhen Wang, Jianwen Zhang, Jianlin Feng, Zheng Chen. Knowledge Graph and Text Jointly Embedding. EMNLP 2014. pdf
  • Zhen Wang, Jianwen Zhang, Jianlin Feng, Zheng Chen. Knowledge Graph Embedding by Translating on Hyperplanes. AAAI 2014. pdf code

Awards & Scholarships

  • First-Class Award in the 2024 Science and Technology Awards by the Chinese Institute of Electronics
  • KDD 2022 ADS Track Best Paper Award, Aug 2022
  • KDD Cup, AutoML Track, 4/149, May 2020 (our solution)
  • NeurIPS RL Challenge 5/427, Nov 2018 (our solution)
  • National Scholarship, Sep 2014
  • Silver Medal in ACM/ICPC Asia Regional Contest, Oct 2011
  • National Scholarship, Sep 2009

Working Experience

Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

  • Associate Professor, May 2023 - present

Alibaba Group, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

  • Senior Algorithm Expert (P8), Data Analytics and Intelligence Lab, Sept 2022 - May 2023

  • Algorithm Expert (P7), Data Analytics and Intelligence Lab, June 2020 - Aug 2022

    • FederatedScope: a federated learning platform with an event-driven programming paradigm.
    • FederatedScope-GNN: a federated graph learning package and benchmark.

  • Algorithm Expert (P7), Deep Learning Algorithm Division, July 2019 - May 2020

    • Neural architecture search utilities: DARTS, ASAP, ProxylessNAS, etc.
    • Auto feature engineering utilities: AutoCross and some RL-based search strategies
    • EasyReinforcementLearning: TensorFlow-based RL package

  • Senior Algorithm Engineer (P6), Large Scale Learning-Innovative Algorithm Division, July 2017 - June 2019

    • Double 11 bundle recommendation business: a model for CTR prediction
    • A3gent: an internal deep reinforcement learning package
    • Ray: I contribute the implementations of several RL algorithms, e.g., DDPG, Rainbow, and MARWIL, to Ray RLLib and become a committer
    • Fraud regularization and flow control: constrained contextual bandit
    • Interactive shopping assistant: hierarchical reinforcement learning