Wan-Zi Lu is a medical sociologist studying how moralization develops in an institutional structure and affects population well-being worldwide. In particular, she explores the ways policymakers, professionals, and the public settle conflicts between life-saving medical practices and existing cultural practices. She completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 2021.

Her dissertation, “Body Politics: Morals, Markets, and the Mobilization of Organ Donation,” examines the institutionalization of bodily giving across the globe. To understand why shared cultural norms have produced different policies and practices of organ donation, she compares the transformations of regulatory frameworks and organizational arrangements related to organ donation in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Additionally, she has published a set of studies on how traditional authority structures shape democratization and financialization across indigenous communities in Taiwan.