Peilei Fan

Peilei Fan is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, joining in 2023 from Michigan State University (MSU), where she held a tenured professorship. She leads the Global Urban Environmental and Socioeconomic Sustainability (GUESS) Lab and serves as President of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE). Her research focuses on urban sustainability, public health, innovation systems, and environmental justice in transitional economies, particularly in Asia and Southeast Asia. She has secured over $13 million in federal grants as PI/Co-PI and published extensively in journals like Environmental Research Letters and PNAS.

Education: BS in Computer Science (Nanjing University), MS in Geography (Nanjing University), MS in City & Regional Planning (Rutgers), MS in EECS (MIT), PhD in Economic Development (MIT), and postdoc training at UNU in Japan. She also holds adjunct roles at MSU and has consulted for ADB and UNU-WIDER.

Research Highlights: Projects include Decoding Land Transitions in Southeast Asia (NASA-funded), Climate, Land, & Health of Dengue Fever (Peru), and comparative studies on urbanization in Taipei/Shanghai. Awards include recognition as a top 2% global scientist (Stanford/Elsevier) and MSU’s Beal Outstanding Faculty Award.

Teaching: Courses on urban sustainability, policy analysis, and research methods. Advised over 20 graduate students, many now in academia and international organizations like the World Bank.

• Key Labs/Teams: GUESS Lab (Tufts/MSU), Center for Global Change & Earth Observations (MSU)
• Grants: NASA, NSF, ADB, and multi-million dollar interdisciplinary projects