从事凝聚态理论研究，研究方向包括各种新型二维材料以及拓扑材料的量子输运与光学性质研究。已在Nature Physics, Science Advances, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, New Journal of Physics等学术期刊上发表SCI论文17篇，论文总他引1900多次，H指数14。
主要论文：
1. X. Zhang#, W.-Y. Shan#, and D. Xiao, “Optical selection rule of excitons in gapped chiral fermion systems”,Physical Review Letters 120, 077401 (2018). (#共同一作)
2. S. Wu, L. Wang, Y. Lai, W.-Y. Shan, G. Aivazian, X. Zhang, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, D. Xiao, C. Dean, J. Hone, Z. Li, and X. Xu, “Multiple hot-carrier collection in photo-excited graphene moire superlattices”, Science Advances 2, e1600002 (2016).
3. M. Sui, G. Chen, L. Ma, W.-Y. Shan, D. Tian, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, X. Jin, W. Yao, D. Xiao and Y. Zhang, “Gate-tunable topological valley transport in bilayer graphene”, Nature Physics 11, 1027 (2015).
4. J. Zhou, W.-Y. Shan, W. Yao, and D. Xiao, “Berry phase modification to the energy spectrum of excitons”,Physical Review Letters 115, 166803 (2015).
5. W.-Y. Shan, J. Zhou, and D. Xiao, “Optical generation and detection of pure valley current in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides”, Physical Review B 91, 035402 (2015).
6. W.-Y. Shan, H.-Z. Lu, and D. Xiao, “Spin Hall effect in spin-valley coupled monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides”, Physical Review B 88, 125301 (2013).
7. W.-Y. Shan, H.-Z. Lu, and S.-Q. Shen, “Spin-orbit scattering in quantum diffusion of massive Dirac fermions”, Physical Review B 86, 125303 (2012).
8. W.-Y. Shan, J. Lu, H.-Z. Lu, and S.-Q. Shen, “Vacancy-induced bound states in topological insulators”, Physical Review B 84, 035307 (2011).
9. W.-Y. Shan, H.-Z. Lu, S.-Q. Shen, “Effective continuous model for surface states and thin films of three dimensional topological insulators”, New Journal of Physics 12, 043048 (2010). (ESI 1%高被引论文)