Helen Zheng

Helen Zheng is a Senior Lecturer in Spatial Planning at the University of Manchester's School of Environment, Education, and Development. She holds key roles as Co-Associate Director of Research Ethics and Co-Chair of the Ethics Committee. Her research focuses on spatial inequalities, urban sustainability, and spatial planning policies, employing mixed methodologies including geospatial analytics and machine learning.

Education: PhD in Urban Renewal from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2017) and BSc in Urban and Rural Planning from Nanjing University (2012). She has led projects funded by the ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, and others.

Research interests span spatial health inequalities, mobility patterns, and decision-support frameworks for urban planning. Her recent work emphasizes sustainable transport, disadvantaged group equity in EV adoption, and HSR station development strategies. She contributes to UN SDGs 3 (Good Health), 9 (Industry/Innovation), 11 (Sustainable Cities), and 13 (Climate Action).

Teaching includes courses on policy-making, data analytics for planning, and dissertation supervision. She co-leads the Spatial Policy and Analysis Laboratory and collaborates on projects like the Manchester-Melbourne-Toronto Joint Research Fund on spatial obesity inequality.

• Key Awards: Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2015-2017)
• Grants: £2.2M+ across 8 projects including 'SCI:RE: Unmasking Social Care Inequalities' (2025-2027)
• Labs: Spatial Policy and Analysis Laboratory and Research Group