Personal Statement
Dr. Yuan Shi is currently a Lecturer in Environmental Planning at the University of Liverpool, before which he was a Research Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Shi is an environmental planner and urban climatologist with extensive international research experience, delivering data-driven, climate-resilient urban planning outputs, with a specific focus on land-vegetation-atmosphere interactions and their impact on the built environment quality and health. With nearly 100 academic publications in world-leading journals, books, and consultancy reports, he has been the Top 100 most cited authors in the Field of Research for Geography, Planning and Development in the United Kingdom over 2021 to 2026, (h-index 37, i10-index 61, as at July 2026) and won multiple prestigious academic and professional awards in the field of urban climate and built environment, from the International Association for Urban Climate, American Meteorological Society, Architectural Science Association, and awarded RENKEI Japan-UK Research and Education Network for Knowledge Economy Initiatives Fellowship. Dr Shi's research transcends traditional academic boundaries between planning and environmental science, shows the interdisciplinary merit and links atmospheric and climate research with sustainable urban planning and urban development. By conducting interdisciplinary and translational research, he focuses on providing scientific evidence and translating it to practical strategies for urban planners, practitioners and decision-makers for making a better built environment. He currently serves on the editorial board of ‘Advances in Climate Change Research’ and has performed peer review for more than 130 international journals in the field of urban planning, environmental science, atmospheric science, geography and urban science, including Nature Communications, Environmental Science and Technology. Internationally, Dr. Shi has professional memberships and has been active in several global collaborative research communities & networks, leading multiple research projects funded by the British Council and Research Grants Council Hong Kong. He is currently working on collaborative research on the integration of WUDAPT with geospatial modelling of urban air pollution, heat waves as well as urban carbon emission mapping. He has also been working on green infrastructure research, and his work has gained media appearances, featuring his contribution to a Forbes article entitled "Why Parks Are Good For You And The Air You Breathe". Besides, Dr. Shi is also an award-winning photographer who mainly focuses on wildlife and cityscape and strives to raise public awareness of environmental and nature conservation through the language of photography.Web Profile; GoogleScholar; ResearchGate; ORCiD; Scopus;