CV

Contact Information

Name Hong (Louie) Yao
Email lhyao731@gmail.com
Phone +1 (540) 514-1936

Education

  • 2018 - 2023

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Ph.D.
    Virginia Tech
    Physics
    • Advisor: Prof. Uwe C. Täuber
    • Tipsword Graduate Scholarship (2021)
    • Clayton Williams Graduate Fellowship (2022)
  • 2014 - 2018

    Tianjin, China

    B.Sc.
    Nankai University
    Physics
    • Nankai Gong Neng Scholarship (2015–2018)

Experience

  • 2023 -

    Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Predictive Modeling Analyst
    The Cincinnati Insurance Company
    • Led a collaborative research project with Ohio State University leveraging language modeling for homeowner pricing: applied DPO to rank zip-code-level risk, and used LLM-based summarization and embedding of demographic, social media, and crime data for territory-level risk tiering.
    • Led development of an Azure-hosted GPT-based assistant using RAG, enabling underwriters to query predictive models, documentation, and risk factors via natural language.
    • Improved territory factor modeling by introducing graph-based smoothing and clustering methods inspired by Graph Neural Networks, integrating spatial, locational, and demographic information.
    • Designed and deployed a predictive model to identify policies requiring inspection; contributed approximately $1M in annual premium uplift.
    • Conducted large-scale feature analysis across 1,000+ candidate variables to identify robust predictors for homeowner rating and underwriting models.
  • 2022 - 2022

    Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Predictive Modeling Intern
    The Cincinnati Insurance Company
    • Developed machine learning models to predict territory factors for homeowner insurance pricing, supporting actuarial rate development and model validation workflows.
  • 2018 - 2023

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Teaching Assistant
    Virginia Tech
    Teaching assistant for multiple undergraduate and graduate physics courses.
    • Introductory Physics Lab (2305/2306): Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020
    • Math Methods in Physics (2504): Fall 2019
    • Modern Classical Physics (4984/5984): Fall 2020
    • Graduate Statistical Mechanics (5705): Spring 2021, Spring 2023
    • Intro Quantum Mechanics (4455 & 4456): Spring & Fall 2022

Awards

  • 2024
    QHack 2024 — Third Place, "A Matter of Taste" Challenge
    QHack / PennyLane

    Also received the Amazon Braket Prize (Top 3). PennyLane Highlights.

  • 2022
    Clayton Williams Graduate Fellowship
    Virginia Tech

  • 2021
    Tipsword Graduate Scholarship
    Virginia Tech

  • 2016
    Nankai Gong Neng Scholarship
    Nankai University

    Awarded 2015–2018.

Interests

Phase Transitions and Critical Dynamics: Renormalization group theory, Field-theoretic methods, Universality classes, Conformal field theory, Nonequilibrium critical phenomena, Symmetry-driven collective behavior
Quantum Information and Computation: Open quantum systems, Quantum many-body dynamics, Entanglement structure, Nonequilibrium processes, Quantum correlations, Quantum information stabilization
Physics for Artificial Intelligence: Training dynamics of deep neural networks, Representation structure and interpretability, Generalization and robustness, Emergent behavior in large-scale models, Statistical-physics approaches to learning systems

Certificates

  • IBM Certified Associate Developer - Quantum Computation using Qiskit - IBM

Academic Service

Conference Reviewer
  • International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2026)
Journal Reviewer
  • Physical Review Letters (PRL)
  • Physical Review A (PRA)
  • Physical Review E (PRE)
  • Europhysics Letters (EPL)
  • Advanced Quantum Technologies
  • International Journal of Modern Physics B