Dr. Block-Schachter is a Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT focused on transportation policy, planning, and operations. He holds Master of Science, Master of City Planning, Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

Yulin Chen, Tsinghua University

CHEN Yulin is an assistant researcher at Department of Urban Planning in Tsinghua University. With the background of urban planning and sociology, Yulin studies China’s urbanization from the view of citizenization and its urban spatial response. Yulin has organized nationwide investigations on migrants in China, and has been the sub-task leader in “Research on the Population Migration and Citizenization” and “Study of Multi-Urbanization Development Strategy in China”.

Yi Dong, Partner, DC Alliance; Lecturer, Tongji University

Dr. Yi Dong is a Lecturer in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University, where he received his Ph.D in 2011. He practices as the Partner of DC Alliance, an architecture firm based in Shanghai. Focused on affordable housing in China, Dr. Dong leads his design team in several award-winning projects in Ningbo, Zhejiang, including Ningbo Eastern New City Economical Housing project, which was selected for the best residential project in the “Good Design is Good Business” award in the Business Week/Architectural Record China Award 2008; and the Ningbo Yinzhou Talent Apartments project, which won the special award for residential buildings of the Third China Architecture Media Awards in 2012 and reported in Architectural Record in 2013/03.

Wanli Fang, MIT

Wanli Fang holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from MIT. She studies international development issues from the perspectives of urban and regional economics and public finance. Her dissertation systematically assessed the impacts of transport infrastructure investments on the efficiency, scale and distribution of urban economic activities, using China’s high-speed rail as a specific case. Since 2010, she has served as a consultant for the World Bank on a variety of financial aid and technical assistance projects on urbanization, transport investments, economic development and municipal finance. She will be a co-instructor of introductory economics and regional economic modeling classes at DUSP, MIT starting September 2013.

Yu-Hung Hong, Land Governance Laboratory

Dr. Yu-Hung Hong is the founder and Executive Director of Land Governance Laboratory where he studies the use of land tools to facilitate open and inclusive decision making processes for land resource allocation in developing countries. He is also a Lecturer of Urban Planning and Finance at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Visiting Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He earned his Ph.D. in Urban Development and Masters in City Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. His research focuses on property rights and obligations, land readjustment/sharing, and local public finance. Specifically, he is interested in investigating how governments can capture land value increments created by public investment and community collaboration for financing local infrastructure and durable shelters for the poor.

Kyle Jaros, Harvard University

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard University whose research interests include Chinese politics, the political economy of development, and the politics of urban and regional policy and planning. My current research examines the impact of state institutions and political actors on urban and regional growth patterns in China and other large developing countries. In my dissertation project entitled “The Political Economy of Metropolitan Focus in China,” I examine the political and administrative dynamics surrounding the rapid rise of large metropolitan centers across China since the late 1990s and explore why there has been variation over time and across provinces in “metropolitan focus,” or the extent to which development policies favor top cities over other areas. In a related research project, I examine the multilevel politics of urban planning and governance in China's heartland metropolis of Xi'an. I earned my undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 2005, majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and earning a Certificate in Chinese Language and Culture. I have also studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (2005-2006) and been a senior visiting student at the School of Government of Peking University (2011-2012).

Shan Jiang, MIT

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Shan Jiang is a PhD candidate in the Urban Information Systems (UIS) Group at DUSP. Her research interests lie in the fields of urban spatial analytics, geographic information systems (GIS), and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in urban planning and transportation planning (e.g., land use and transportation, human mobility and travel behavior, public transport, and sustainable development). Her research asks the questions (1) how can planners use ICT to understand the spatial distributions of economic activities and patterns of human activities and mobility, and their interrelationship at the micro- and macro-level; and (2) what can be done by the public sectors to promote sustainable development by regulating, influencing, and altering behavior of different agents in both short- and long- terms. She leads the student interest group-- China Urban Development at MIT, and has organized with fellow students in the group many public lectures on key issues of urban development in China over the past two years.

Xin Li, Columbia University

Xin Li is a visiting assistant professor in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. Her research explores crucial issues linking economic development, environmental protection, and technological innovation in different institutional settings. Through comparative approach, Li is particularly interested in economic restructuring in rapidly deindustrializing regions, environmental and social problems accompanying fast urbanization, and land conflicts arising from rampant urban expansion. Her current work primarily focuses on China, where she examines how brownfield issues in Chinese cities were and currently are managed during industrial sites’ redevelopment process. She investigates these issues by analyzing the progress of brownfield legislation, property rights of former industrial land, environmental governance related to land contamination, brownfield financing mechanisms, and power balances among stakeholders. Dr. Li has a PhD degree in Urban and Regional Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; and a B.A. in Economics from Renmin University of China.

Kyung-Min Nam, MIT

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Kyung-Min Nam holds a Ph.D. in international development and regional planning from MIT, and is currently a postdoctoral associate in the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Dr. Nam’s interests are in the institutional and policy dimensions of economic and environmental sustainability, and his current research focuses on the analysis of synergistic effects of air pollution control and climate policy and the development of an urban growth model based on new economic geography theories. His recent publications include “Out of Passivity: Potential Role of OFDI in IFDI-based Learning Trajectory (2013, Industrial and Corporate Change),” “City-Size Distribution as a Function of Socioeconomic Conditions: An Eclectic Approach to Downscaling Global Population (2013, Urban Studies)”, and “Health Damage from Air Pollution in China (2012, Global Environmental Change).”

Joan Retsinas

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Joan Retsinas, AB Bryn Mawr, PhD (sociology) Brown University, has taught in the Department of Family Medicine at Brown, and as an adjunct at The George Washington University, Rhode Island College, and Tufts’ School of Occupational Therapy. Most recently she was managing editor of the monthly professional journal of the Rhode Island Medical Society. She has written on health policy, aging, and small business. Currently she writes regular columns for the Progressive Populist and PrimeTime Magazine, and is a contributing writer to Aging Today, the newsletter of the American Society on Aging.

Shin-pei Tsay, TransitCenter and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Shin-pei’s experience in policy and practice converges on transforming the built environment so that it is more accessible, equitable, and sustainable. She has held leadership positions in private and non-profit research, advocacy, urban design, community development, and technology organizations, including Project for Public Spaces, ZGF Architects, and Transportation Alternatives, and was most recently the director of cities and transportation in the energy and climate program for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is also a co-founder and director of Planning Corps, an organization that matches urban planners with community-based projects. Shin-pei serves on the boards of Transportation Alternatives and of the Brooklyn Public Library, is published extensively, and frequently collaborates on creative projects for the public good. Shin-pei holds a bachelor of arts in government with distinction from the College of Arts and Science at Cornell University and a master of science in cities, space, and society from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Hui Wang, Tsinghua University

Hui Wang is an Associate Professor in School of Architecture at Tsinghua University. Specializing in architectural and urban design theories and practice, Hui Wang has been engaged in teaching and research in Tsinghua University. He has written several books, including Form and Meaning of Architectural Aesthetics and Administration Spaces in Beijing. He holds a doctor’s degree in architecture from Tsinghua University. At MIT, he will undertake an aesthetic study of urban design in Chinese cities, focusing on the form of buildings and public spaces, the mechanisms that affect form, and aesthetic cognition.

Weiping Wu, Tufts University

Weiping Wu, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Policy Development from Rutgers University, and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tsinghua University (China). She is a former editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, and a visiting Zijiang Chair Professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. Previously, she was a professor of urban studies and planning and international studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, a consultant to the World Bank, and a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. She also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Urban Affairs, Open Urban Studies Journal, Journal of Urban and Regional Planning (Chinese), and World Regional Studies (Chinese). Her research is concerned with how migration affects the socio-spatial reconfiguration of cities, how planning and policy influence cities’ economic vitality and infrastructure building, and how higher education transfers knowledge and innovation to industry. With a record of substantial scholarly and publication activities (in books, articles, chapters, and policy and consultant reports), she contributes to a better understanding of urban dynamics in developing countries, and China in particular. Methodologically, she combines large-scale surveys, in-depth interviews, and statistical and spatial analysis. The National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and World Bank have provided funding support for her research. She has (co) authored and co-edited six books, the most recent published by Routledge titled The Chinese City.

Yuan Xiao, MIT

Yuan Xiao is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research interests include property rights theories and practices, urbanization, land markets as well as urban and regional economics. Yuan Xiao's dissertation studies the latest land policy innovation in China, the land quota markets which have de-spatialized land transfers and have important social and economic implications for Chinese urbanization. Prior to coming to MIT, she worked for three years with the World Bank Institute in Washington D.C., focusing on capacity building and training programs in the field of urban management and planning for developing countries. Yuan obtained her master's degree in Political Science from University of Toronto, Canada. She was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in International Politics and a concurrent Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Peking University, China.

Liyan Xu, MIT

Bio: Liyan Xu is a third-year doctoral student at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests include urbanization and regional development in China, and the related land use and public finance issues. Before coming to MIT, Liyan had worked as a planner and project manager in Beijing, with experiences of 20+ projects on regional, urban, and land use planning. Liyan graduated from the Yuanpei Pilot Program in Science in Peking University and was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, and then obtained his Master Degree in Economic Geography from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences in Peking University.

Yang Yu, Stanford University

Yang Yu is a Ph.D. Candidate in Stanford and his current research include the energy consumption in transportation sector in China, electricity market reform in transit countries and the integration of renewable energy into power grid.

Yifan Yu, Tongji University

One of the most achieved scholars in the field of social housing in China, Yifan YU is a Professor at Tongji University Department of Urban Planning and the Vice-President of the Urban Planning Association of Shanghai. She is also a Research Project Director at the Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as a Research Fellow of Université Paris-Sorbonne. Her publications include “The Morphology of Habitation”, “Social Housing’s Double-Marginalization Trap”, and “Approaches to Urban Design” etc. She received her PhD from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Jinhua Zhao, MIT

Jinhua Zhao is the Edward H. and Joyce Linde Career Development Assistant Professor of urban planning at DUSP. He holds Master of Science, Master of City Planning and Ph.D. degrees from MIT and a Bachelor's degree from Tongji University. He studies travel behavior and transportation policy, public transit management, and China’s urbanization and mobility. He sees transportation as a language, to describe a person, to characterize a city, and to understand an institution. His current project examines the interaction between policy making by the governments and behavioral response from the public in the context of China’s urban development. He very much enjoys working with students.

Yi Zhu, MIT

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Yi Zhu is currently a PhD Candidate of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His primary research interests are in urban transportation planning, Geographical Information System (GIS), urban growth modeling and scientific visualization of big data. Yi was born in China, where he received his Bachelor degree in Transportation Engineering in 2002. Afterwards, he got dual degrees in urban planning and civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has been working in the Strategic Options for Transportation and Urban Revitalization (SOTUR) project within the MIT-Portugal Program (MPP) and the Future Urban Mobility (FM) project within the SMART program during his study at MIT.