Xiangrong Wang is Director and Professor at the Research Centre for Urban EcoPlanning & Design in Fudan University’s Department of Environmental Science and
Engineering, where he is also Chair of the Academic Degree Commission. He is President
of Shanghai Ecological Society, and Deputy Chairman of the Ecological Society of China’s
Urban Ecological Commission. He is currently engaged in research in the areas of urban
ecology and planning, environmental policy and management, vegetation ecology and
natural conservation, and environmental assessment and planning.
Active in Shanghai, he is a member of the Shanghai Senate, the Shanghai Municipal
Science and Technology Commission, and the Shanghai Municipal Construction
Commission. He is a member of the International Association for Vegetation Sciences.
He serves in an editorial capacity for a number of academic and international journals
including Acta Ecologica Sinica, Journal of Ecology, Journal of Chinese Eco-Agriculture,
Journal of Environmental Science & Technology, Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal
of Environmental Management, and Ecological Complexity.
Professor Wang is a Fulbright Scholar (2004-2005), teaching courses about China’s
environmental studies and sustainable development as a visiting professor at the State
University of New York at New Paltz and Bard College’s Centre for Environmental Policy,
both in the United States. He was also a visiting professor in the Department of Civic
Design at the University of Liverpool, UK (1994-1996), and an honour professor in the
Academy of China’s Research Centre of Ecological Environment.
Xiangrong has carried out 60+ research projects and published 14 scholarly books and
130 academic papers in China and abroad. From 1995-2000, he participated in the
writing of a key textbook entitled “Ecology” for use in Chinese universities. Throughout
this project he served as a steering member of the Teaching Guidance Committee for
Environmental Science of Chinese Universities, in the National Education Ministry of
China. In 2009, he published another textbook entitled “Urban Ecology” for Chinese
universities. He was also responsible for the publishing of Government Action Plans and
Regulations on topics such as greening, ecological community, environmental protection
and ecological rules of waterway control.
Key projects in recent years include the following: “Database and Key Technology for
Ecological Information of Urban Green Space” (project of Chinese National Ministry for
Science and Technology); “Ecological Planning and Database for Shanghai Jiuduansha
National Wetland Natural Reserve” (project of Shanghai Pudong New Area
Administrator, 2009); “Global climate change and assessment on eco-vulnerability of
estuary city” (WWF-funded project, 2008); “Strategy Environmental Assessment for
Planning of New East City of Fuzhou, China” (2008); “Ecological Planning and Design for
Ecological Belt of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province” (2006-2008); “Comparison of Planning
and Management Strategy for Open Space System between Shanghai and London” (UKChina Linked Project, 2000).
Xiangrong is Regional Vice-Chair East Asia and Steering Committee member of IUCN
CEC, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Education and
Communication.