PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Zhenan Sun

Also known as 孙哲南

Zhenan Sun is a professor at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his research covers biometrics, pattern recognition, and computer vision, including automatic iris recognition. He received a bachelor's degree in industrial automation from the Dalian University of Technology in 1999, a master's degree in system engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2002, and a doctorate in pattern recognition and intelligent systems from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006. With Tieniu Tan, he published Ordinal Measures for Iris Recognition in 2009, and with Xiang Wu, Ran He, and Tieniu Tan he presented a Light CNN for a compact face embedding from large-scale data with noisy labels in 2015. The International Association for Pattern Recognition named him a Fellow in 2016 for contributions to automatic iris recognition and applications, and he chaired its biometrics committee from 2018 to 2020 and from 2021 to 2022. As of October 2026, he is a professor at CASIA and a lecturer for the January 2027 IAPR/IEEE Winter School on Biometrics in Shenzhen.

Now at
Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin Zhongke Intelligent Recognition Industrial Technology Research Institute, China Biometrics Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence and China Society of Image and Graphics
Works
413
Citations
18,389
h-index
66

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 17 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1999–2006

    Degrees across three universities

    He receives a B.S. degree in industrial automation from the Dalian University of Technology in 1999, an M.S. degree in system engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2002, and a Ph.D. degree in pattern recognition and intelligent systems from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006.

  2. Since 2006

    Faculty in pattern recognition

    He joins the National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a faculty member in 2006, and he is a professor there. His research interests include biometrics, pattern recognition, and computer vision.

  3. 2009

    Ordinal measures for iris recognition

    With Tieniu Tan, he publishes Ordinal Measures for Iris Recognition in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence in 2009.

  4. 2015

    A light face network

    In 2015, with Xiang Wu, Ran He, and Tieniu Tan, he presents a Light CNN that learns a compact face embedding from large-scale face data with noisy labels.

  5. 2016

    An IAPR Fellowship

    The International Association for Pattern Recognition names him a Fellow in 2016 for contributions to automatic iris recognition and applications.

  6. 2016–2022

    Biometrics committee chair

    He serves as vice chair of the IAPR biometrics technical committee from 2016 to 2018, and as chair from 2018 to 2020 and from 2021 to 2022.

  7. 2019–2021

    Leading talent and science prize

    In 2019, he is named a young and middle-aged leading talent in scientific and technological innovation under the Ministry of Science and Technology innovation talent promotion plan. In 2021, he shares the first prize of the natural science award of the China Society of Image and Graphics with Ran He and Tieniu Tan.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and winter school lecturer

    He is a professor at CASIA in the State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences School of Artificial Intelligence, and director of the Tianjin Zhongke Intelligent Recognition Industrial Technology Research Institute. He is secretary-general of the China Biometrics Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, deputy director of the Pattern Recognition Committee of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence and of the Machine Vision Committee of the China Society of Image and Graphics, and an editorial board member of IEEE Transactions on Biometrics, Behavior, and Identity Science. In September 2026, he is named a lecturer for the January 2027 IAPR/IEEE Winter School on Biometrics in Shenzhen.

Sources and credits

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  1. Home Page cbsr.ia.ac.cn. Checked 16 October 2026.
  2. Zhenan Sun, Iris Recognition - IAPR/IEEE Winter School on Biometrics 2025 comp.hkbu.edu.hk. Checked 16 October 2026.
  3. 孙哲南----中国科学院自动化研究所 ia.cas.cn. Checked 16 October 2026.
  4. [1511.02683] A Light CNN for Deep Face Representation with Noisy Labels arxiv.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  5. IAPR Fellows for 2016 – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  6. Professor Zhenan SUN Elected as IAPR Fellow----Institute of Automation english.ia.cas.cn. Checked 16 October 2026.
  7. Committees – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  8. Call for Participants: 10th IAPR/IEEE Winter School on Biometrics 2026 (WSB2026) | IEEE Biometrics Council ieee-biometrics.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  9. Call for Participation — IAPR/IEEE Winter School on Biometrics 2027 | IEEE Biometrics Council ieee-biometrics.org. Checked 16 October 2026.