Our Research Lab

Tianzuo Wen (文天祚) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SIEW Lab since 2023. He earned his PhD from the Department of Urban Planning and Design at HKU. Prior to that, he received his master's degree in Urban and Regional Development from Peking University and a bachelor's degree in Urban Planning from the South China University of Technology. His research interests include state-market relations, urban governance and financing, public-private partnerships, regional development, and urban climate. Currently, he is conducting research on sustainable urban development strategies.

Lu Shan (单路) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SlEW Lab since September 2024. Dr Shan received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to his doctoral studies, he received his B.E. and M.S. degree in Urban Planning from Southeast University. Dr Shan has extensive practical experience in Territorial Spatial Planning and Urban Design. His research interests lie in the interface of territorial spatial planning and public health, including healthy city, environmental justice, and healthcare resources allocation.

Huiting Chen (陈慧婷) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SIEW Lab since 2024, supervised by Professor Shenjing He. Dr Chen earned her PhD and bachelor’s degree from the School of Resource and Environmental Sciences at Wuhan University. Her research interests include urban planning, climate resilience, and climate justice. Currently, she is conducting research on flood resilience and the trade-offs between climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban planning.

Bai, Mingze (白明泽), Ph.D. Student. Mingze's research interests include urban development, real estate markets, capital mobility, rent theory, etc. Mingze's Ph.D. project discusses the development of Asian real estate investment trusts from the perspective of real estate financialization

Sijie (董思婕) is a Ph.D. student. She holds a bachelor's degree in Human Geography & East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto and a MPhil in Planning, Growth and Regeneration from the University of Cambridge. Sijie's research interests revolve around urban redevelopment, migrants, and social equity issues, with a specific focus on education, gender, and housing inequality.

Ziming Wang (王子銘) is a Ph.D. student who joined SIEW lab in 2023. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tsinghua University, and a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. Prior to the current role, he carried out an independent research project on heritage resilience under the support of 2022 Onera Prize for Historic Preservation, and has interned or served short-term research/teaching assistant positions at a number of institutions. His current research interest lies in climate resilience, social equity, urban conservation and regeneration.

Yuan Gao (高远) is a first-year Ph.D. student. She obtained her undergraduate and master’s degrees in urban and regional planning from Peking University, where she conducted firsthand research on China’s land use and planning systems and gained diverse social survey experiences. Her research interests lie in climate change equity and mitigation measures, land use policy, rural livelihoods and energy poverty.

Zekun Zhou (周泽昆), Ph.D. student, joined the SIEW Lab in 2024. He obtained bachelor's degree of sociology at Tongji University and master's degree of urban planning at Columbia University. His research interest falls on the connection between institutions and tension between local stakeholders in cross-border area. He has also participated in a number of project-based internship at local planning department in the Greater Bay Area and Barcelona, providing him with more comprehension of local governance.

Nannan Zhao (赵楠楠) is a joint Post-doctoral researcher at the South China University of Technology (Department of Public Administration) and The University of Hong Kong (Department of Urban Planning and Design). She holds two Ph.D.s from the City University of Hong Kong (Department of Public Policy) and the South China University of Technology (Department of Urban and Rural Planning). She is currently working on the interplay of multi-scalar governance actors in the urban regeneration process and the effects of the latest neighborhood regeneration agenda in local planning practice. Her research interests are urban regeneration, neighborhood governance, participatory planning, and public interest representation in planning. E-mail: nnzhao@hku.hk

Dr Honglin ZHU (朱虹霖) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SIEW Lab since 2024. ZHU earned her PhD from the Department of Geography at HKBU. Prior to that, she received her master’s degree in the College of Water Sciences from Beijing Normal University and a bachelor’s degree in the School of Water Resources and Hydropower from Wuhan University. Her research interests include geospatial big data analysis, machine learning for environmental monitoring, and urban health science. Currently, she is conducting research on urban resilience to flooding.

Chenxin (万尘心) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SlEW Lab since September 2024. Dr Wan received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Hong Kong. She obtained the master's degree and  bachelor's degree from Tongji University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, respectively. Her current research interests include gentrification, urban renewal, and urban conservation.

Weihang (龚卫航) is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture, HKU in 2022. He obtained his bachelor's degree in human geography from Zhejiang University and his Mphil degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2021. His research interests include regional planning and development, gentrification, and rural governance. 

Zixuan Han (韩子璇) is a Ph.D. student. Zixuan obtained her master's and bachelor's degree both from Wuhan University. Zixuan's research interests concentrate on health geography, especially about the health-related quality of life, public service and policy, and associated social inequalities. Zixuan is participating in a project focusing on cross-border healthcare and residential mobility within the Greater Bay Area.

Li Ziyuan (李梓源) is a Ph.D. student who joined the SIEW lab in 2024. Ziyuan obtained her bachelor's degree in Landscape Studies from the University of Hong Kong, and her research focused on climate justice and grassroots migrants' climate actions. Her current research interests lie in cross-border migration, education and housing inequality, and regional governance in the Great Bay Area.

Lin, Jingjie (林靖杰), Ph.D. Student. Before joining the University of Hong Kong and SIEW Lab, Jingjie obtained his bachelor's degree in urban and rural planning from Sun Yat-Sen University and his master's degree from Nanjing University. His research interests include urban governance, urban regeneration, and urban-rural migration.

Yuting Cheng (程雨婷) is a Ph.D student who joined the SIEW Lab in 2025. She holds double bachelor's degrees in Journalism and Public Administration from Tsinghua University (2023) and graduated with distinction in MAChDS at the University of Hong Kong (2024). Before her current role, she was a research/consultant intern and curator at diverse heritage conservation and urban design institutions. Her research interests include cultural heritage, urban redevelopment/ gentrification, entrepreneurial urbanism, affective infrastructure, and community design.

Chenxi Li (李晨曦) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SIEW Lab since Autumn 2024. Chenxi received her PhD from the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a market researcher in the real estate industry. She also holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Human Geography from Sun Yat-sen University. Her research interests include rental housing studies, urban renewal, and neighbourhood effects.

Haitong MO (莫海彤) is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the SIEW Lab since 2024, supervised by Prof. Shenjing He. Haitong earned her Ph.D.s from the Department of Public and International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong, and the School of Architecture, South China University of Technology. Prior to that, she received her bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning from South China University of Technology. Her research interests include housing policy, financialisation of housing, youth development, urban governance, and urban planning. Currently, she is conducting research on low-income housing and neighbourhood governance in Hong Kong. Email: htmo@hku.hk

Hu, Lirong (胡莉蓉) is a Ph.D. student. Lirong’s research interests lie in the geo-big data analysis of urban applications, housing price/rent mechanism, and geographies of education. Lirong's Ph.D. project discusses the aceess to education and its implications on housing choice and urban (re)development.

Xiaoyue (邓小月) is s Ph.D. student at the Department of Urban Planning and Desigh, Faulty of Architecture, HKU from 2023. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degree in Human Geography from Peking University Before joining SIEW, her research focused on urban scaling law and the ubran science.  Xiaoyue's research interests are urban governance, regional planning and development, education-led gentrifacion, and social urban geography.

Dining Liu (刘迪宁) is a Ph.D. student with a keen interest in corporate social innovation for sustainable development. Before joining SIEW Lab in 2023, she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from Beijing Forestry University, a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture and a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science and Technology from University of California, Berkeley. As a program manager and urban designer, she has four-year international working experience in Hong Kong, London, and San Francisco Bay Area.    

Yiwen Zhu (祝怡文) is a 4-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Urban Planning and Design at University of Hong Kong. Before joining SIEW lab in 2023, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Information Resource Management at Zhejiang University in 2023. Yiwen’s current research interests lie in healthy cities, urban big data analytics, supervised learning, social inequality and well-being.

Wenying Tu (涂文颖) is a Ph.D. student. Wenying obtained her master's and bachelor's degree in urban and rural planning from Tsinghua University. Before joining SIEW, her research focused on urban regeneration, population vacating and urban analysis. Her current interest lies on social inequality, with a focus on the intersection of social-spatial restructuring and urban resource distribution.

A passionate urban designer and creative problem solver with acute sensitivity to urban space and social life, abundant project experience in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong on urban design, urban regeneration, TOD strategic development, and rural revitalization, skilled in cross-cultural thinking, communicating with diverse collaborators, and working in interdisciplinary teams and international environment.