People

Alex's research lies at the intersection of travel behavior and transportation governance — understanding how planning policies can guide transportation systems toward equitable and sustainable mobility transitions.

I am a PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore, with research interests in urban planning and transportation governance. My dissertation examines the evolution of street transformation, the policies and initiatives that reconfigure urban streets through redesign, space reallocation, and traffic regulation, in London, San Francisco, and Singapore through historical and comparative analysis across urban and neighborhood scales. I have also worked with Alex on projects concerning vehicle electrification, transportation decarbonisation, and affordable housing in transit-oriented neighbourhoods.

I hold a bachelor’s degree in urban planning from the South China University of Technology and two master’s degrees: one in urban research from the University of Glasgow and another in urban governance and design from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou).

I am currently a PhD student in the Department of Real Estate at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Before joining NUS, I was a PhD student in the Department of Architecture (2026.1–8) and completed my Master's degree in Urban and Rural Planning at Tongji University. Prior to that, I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Geography from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), where I built a strong foundation in spatial thinking, GIS, and human-environment interactions. My research interests lie in urban transportation policy, urban mobility, and the application of big data and causal inference methods to understand travel behavior, accessibility, and transport equity.

My interest in urban planning grew from my geography background and a fascination with understanding how cities function. During my master's studies, I developed a strong interest in applying large-scale mobile phone data and causal inference methods to understand how transportation infrastructure shapes urban vitality and area attractiveness. This experience inspired me to explore how data-driven approaches can provide robust evidence for urban planning and transportation policy.

Over the past year, I have worked with Alex on a project investigating the equity impacts of Germany's transport subsidy policies. Using large-scale mobility data, we examined how these policies affected travel behaviour across different socioeconomic groups.

Outside of research, I enjoy travelling, exploring cities on foot through city walks, discovering local cafés, and drawing.

I recently graduated from the Master of Urban Planning programme at the National University of Singapore and will begin my PhD in August 2026.

My interest in urban planning began with travel, as I found myself drawn to local streetscapes and the ways cities reflect their governance, history, and culture. From design practice during my bachelor’s studies to research and hands-on data collection during my master’s, this curiosity gradually evolved into a broader focus on urban data and civic resilience. My research interests sit at the intersection of digital urban governance, urban data science, and data visualization.

I worked with Alex on several aging-related projects. In the American Elder Migration project, I integrated and harmonized multi-source datasets, including county-level data on socio-economic conditions, climate, and demographics, and contributed to regression analyses of older adult migration flows in the United States. I also worked on the Aging Time Use project and participated in an aging-friendly community study.

In my spare time, I enjoy table tennis, swimming, ballet, and travelling. When I travel, I love exploring cities through their museums and urban planning exhibitions, and discovering how natural landscapes, from mountains to waterways, shape the character of a city.

I have recently graduated from the National University of Singapore with a master’s degree in urban planning. Prior to coming to Singapore, I completed my bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture at Zhejiang University in China. My academic background has provided me with experience in research, data analysis, and interdisciplinary problem-solving.

I developed my interest in urban planning through studying how transport systems, public policies, technology, and the built environment shape people’s daily lives. To me, planning is not only about the physical design of cities, but also about coordinating social, environmental, economic, and institutional priorities. I am particularly interested in how cities can use evidence-based policies and emerging technologies to support more sustainable, inclusive, and efficient urban development.

My research interests include sustainable urban transport, climate policy, urban governance, and the application of artificial intelligence and quantitative methods in planning research. In my recent work, I have used text analysis, embeddings, clustering, and large language models to examine transport-related policies in city climate action plans.

I have worked with Alex on research examining urban transport policies across C40 cities. My work has included organising and coding policy texts, comparing human- and AI-generated classifications, analysing policy categories and similarities, and preparing tables and visualisations for research outputs. This experience strengthened my understanding of comparative urban research and showed me both the potential and the limitations of using AI-assisted methods in planning studies.

In my spare time, I enjoy travelling, photography, reading, hiking, music and exploring cities. These activities allow me to relax while also helping me observe different places, cultures, and ways of urban life.

I am currently a Master of Urban Planning student at the National University of Singapore. Before coming to Singapore, I completed a Master of International Studies in Development Cooperation at Ewha Womans University in South Korea. Growing up between Hong Kong and Seoul sparked my interest in cities, while working with a non-profit organisation supporting local governments across the Asia-Pacific deepened my understanding of the diverse planning challenges facing the region. At NUS, I worked with Professor Alex Li as a Research Assistant on transport decarbonisation, conducting qualitative analysis of transport policies from cities worldwide. Building on this experience, I am currently a Transport Research and Policy Intern at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), where I research sustainable transport and urban mobility. My current projects examine government transport policy responses to the 2026 Middle East energy shock and use GIS to map Bangkok's urban superblocks to identify first- and last-mile accessibility barriers and opportunities for improving active mobility and public transport connectivity. My research interests lie at the intersection of sustainable transport, urban mobility, climate resilience, and evidence-based urban policy. Outside of research, I enjoy reading, journaling, and exploring cities on foot, often wandering through different neighbourhoods to experience how urban spaces function at the human scale.

I am currently a graduate student at the National University of Singapore. Prior to coming to Singapore, I was in the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Hons) programme at the University of Calgary studying public health. I developed my interest in urban planning because I wanted to learn about how cities and the neighbourhood shape and are shaped by people’s health and well-being. My research/professional interests include healthy cities, aging in place, urban health, among others. I worked on a research project with Alex during a semester involving literature review on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in planning education. In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, baking, and photography.