Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News from EconoTimes

Become a contributor

Bookmark Econotimes

Fri, Jun 19, 2026 02:36 AM All times are UTC

Follow Series

©Econometrics LLC . All Rights Reserved.

Spring Zhou

Lecturer, operations and supply chain management, University of Wollongong
Dr Quan (Spring) Zhou is a scholar in the area of operations and supply chain management at University of Wollongong. She obtained a PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from University of Auckland in 2016 for her research in managing medical supplies in national reserves. Prior to joining University of Wollongong, Spring worked as a lecturer at Massey University (2016-2018) and a Research Fellow at University of Auckland (2016) in New Zealand.

As a strong proponent of practice-inspired research, Spring is passionate about combining her research interests with practical needs. Spring has been actively involved in practice-driven, applied research. For example, her PhD project was motivated by the serious expiration problem in the medical reserve stocks. In that project, she studied rotation schemes and provided suggestions on managing the medical supplies, considering the perishability of long-life medical products. Spring has also worked with AgResearch in New Zealand to evaluate on-farm changes when delivering desirable credence attributes for agri-products and explore ways to motivate changes in land use practices.

Spring has published in leading journals including Production and Operations Management and European Journal of Operational Research.

What should rich countries do with spare masks and gloves? It's the opposite of what the WHO recommends

Oct 24, 2022 17:26 pm UTC| Life

Most developed countries hold significant quantities of medical supplies in reserve to respond in an emergency. For example, Australia has its National Medical Stockpile, which stocks personal protective equipment, such...

Economy

Yen Near 40-Year Lows Despite BOJ Rate Hike, Markets Brace for Possible Intervention

The Japanese yen remained close to its weakest level in nearly four decades on Friday, as concerns over Japans fiscal outlook and limited impact from recent policy actions continued to pressure the currency. Market...

BOJ Signals More Rate Hikes as Inflation Risks Rise Amid Energy Price Pressures

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has signaled its willingness to continue raising interest rates as inflationary pressures strengthen, with Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino warning that underlying inflation could exceed the central...

Dollar Hits One-Month High as Hawkish Fed Outlook Boosts Greenback

The U.S. dollar climbed to its strongest level since mid-May 2025 on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signaled a more hawkish monetary policy outlook, reinforcing expectations that interest rates could rise again before...

Oil Prices Slide as U.S.-Iran Deal and Hormuz Reopening Ease Supply Concerns

Oil prices moved lower during Asian trading on Friday and were on track for significant weekly losses as easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East reduced concerns about global crude supply disruptions. Investors...

Gold Prices Slide as Hawkish Fed and Strong Dollar Weigh on Bullion

Gold prices fell sharply on Thursday as a stronger U.S. dollar and a more hawkish Federal Reserve outlook pressured the precious metal market, overshadowing optimism surrounding a newly signed peace agreement between the...

Politics

Trump’s Iran Strategy: What Has Been Achieved After Three Months of Conflict?

More than three months after the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28, President Donald Trumps objectives remain under scrutiny as a preliminary peace agreement moves toward finalization....

Russia and Ukraine Exchange Strikes After Zelenskiy-Trump Talks

Russia and Ukraine exchanged fresh attacks overnight, escalating tensions just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and...

South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung Strengthens Ties With Trump at G7 Summit, Discusses North Korea and Future Golf Meeting

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung emerged from the G7 summit with a symbolic gift from U.S. President Donald Trump and renewed momentum in South Korea-U.S. relations, following extensive discussions on North Korea,...

Trump-Iran Interim Agreement Extends Ceasefire as G7 Leaders Welcome Path to Peace

The United States and Iran have released the text of a newly signed interim agreement aimed at ending months of conflict, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning that military action could resume if Tehran fails to comply...

Trump Questions USMCA Renewal as Trade Talks Continue

U.S. President Donald Trump has cast doubt on the future of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), saying the United States could perform better without the North American trade pact, although he remains open...

Science

Blue Origin New Glenn Explosion Could Delay Launch Operations Until 2028

Blue Origin is facing a significant setback after a dramatic explosion involving its New Glenn rocket severely damaged a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, repairs to the...

Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Launch Pad Test, Delaying Space Ambitions

Blue Origin suffered a major setback after its uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded during a launch pad test in Florida on Thursday, raising new challenges for Jeff Bezos space company as it competes with Elon Musks SpaceX...

SpaceX Delays Starship V3 Launch Ahead of Potential Record IPO

SpaceX on Thursday postponed the highly anticipated launch of its 12th Starship rocket test from Texas after technical issues interrupted the final countdown. The company now plans to attempt the Starship V3 launch again...

Trump Administration Releases New UFO Files and Apollo Mission Records

The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified UFO-related files following an order from President Donald Trump, sparking renewed debate over unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and government...

China vs. NASA: The New Moon Race and What's at Stake by 2030

The space race is back and this time, its a direct competition between the United States and China for dominance on the lunar surface. NASAs Artemis II mission recently made history when four astronauts flew farther into...

Technology

Google Gemini Co-Lead Noam Shazeer Leaves for OpenAI Amid AI Talent Race

Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering at Google and one of the leaders behind the companys Gemini artificial intelligence models, has announced that he is leaving Google to join OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. The...

SK Hynix Shares Hit Record High After Shipping Next-Generation HBM4E AI Memory Samples

SK Hynix Inc. saw its shares surge to an all-time high on Thursday after announcing the shipment of samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) product, reinforcing its position as a leading supplier in the rapidly...

Apple Signals Product Price Hikes Amid Rising Memory Chip Costs

Apple may soon increase prices across some of its products as rising memory and storage chip costs continue to pressure the consumer electronics industry. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook...

Chinese Social Media Giant Xiaohongshu Eyes Hong Kong IPO at Over $70 Billion Valuation

Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, internationally known as RedNote, is reportedly preparing for a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at more than $70 billion. According to a Wall...

Samsung Gains Interest from BYD, Google, AMD as AI Chip Demand Strains TSMC Capacity

Samsung Electronics is attracting growing attention from major global technology companies as demand for advanced semiconductor manufacturing continues to exceed available capacity at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co....