The Harvard-China Project is back to full capacity post-pandemic, welcoming a host of new scholars this past spring and summer. With 30 years of collaborations with Chinese universities, many of these scholars and professors come to our program at the recommendation from our alumni collaborators overseas. Others find their way to our program via our annual application season for fellows, postdocs, and visiting scholars. No matter how they arrive in Cambridge, all of our scholars are committed to research at the nexus of climate, environment, energy and economy. They are studying a range of topics, including electric vehicles; global carbon economics; health and environmental science; and the impact of aviation emissions.
Fellows applications will be online in December to join our academic year 2024-25 cohort. Visit our Join Us page for more details.
Jingran Zhang, Postdoc, Environmental Science
Jingran Zhang, a postdoc who earned her Ph.D. from Tsinghua University, considers the aviation sector among the most challenging field in terms of carbon neutralization. She aims to develop comprehensive assessments on the current environmental and climate impact of aviation emissions and potential mitigation measures towards a low-carbon and clean transportation landscape. For her, being part of HCP has been particularly rewarding because of the supportive environment - despite coming from diverse backgrounds, she says that they all share a common goal of creating a sustainable future. If she has questions about economics or energy, there's always someone knowledgeable to chat with.
Ernani Choma, Research Affiliate, Health Risk
Ernani Choma is a research fellow in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research focuses on health risk assessment, with a primary interest in the use of risk assessment to inform policy decisions. Choma's research has focused on fine particulate matter air pollution and on the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation, especially on the transportation sector, where he has assessed health benefits achieved by past regulation and new technologies, such as vehicle electrification and automation. He is also currently working to quantify the health benefits that can be achieved by reducing urban heat islands. He has participated in several international efforts to improve the quantification of the health effects of fine particulate matter in life cycle assessment and other emission reduction and policy analyses.
Yang Zhao, Postdoc, Transportation Electrification
Yang Zhao is a postdoc in Harvard-China Project who received his Ph.D. from Beijing Institute of Technology. He has worked on the operating behavior and energy use patterns of urban electric vehicles. He is currently studying how large-scale deployment of carbon-neutral vehicle fleets will impact future road transportation and energy systems in different regions. He is also focusing on the development of charging infrastructure in the U.S. and China, as he believes now is the critical time to develop infrastructure for carbon-neutral targets. He appreciates the interdisciplinary collaboration in Harvard-China Project, as experts in different fields can exchange their ideas, which enables him to have a more comprehensive understanding of research in specific fields.
Jiarong Li, Postdoc, Electrical Engineering
When Jiarong Li from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University first began her Ph.D. studies, she set out with the goal of having her future home powered by solar-to-hydrogen, through the cultivation of sunflowers in her yard. She has been focusing on power-to-hydrogen for over seven years along with a bottom-up methodology of experiments and modeling operations and planning of a novel future energy system dominated by power and hydrogen. At Harvard, Jiarong wants to take a top-down view under the highly interdisiplinary nexus of energy-ecology-environment-economy to explore the influence and interaction of energy systems with nature. She looks forward to "synergizing" with all HCP colleagues from diverse backgrounds!
Naixin Huang, Ph.D Candidate, Economics
Naixin Huang is a Ph.D. candidate in economics from Tsinghua University. Her research with HCP research associate Dr. Mun S. Ho and visiting Prof. Jing Cao focuses on the global carbon price floor's welfare effects and optimal design. The 2°C goal is challenging to reach, and it will be essential to consider the international differences in mitigation costs and benefits. IMF (2021) proposes a system of global carbon prices in which countries at different economic levels assign different carbon prices. Using a global trade model, she and colleagues seek to illustrate the impact of such a differentiated price floor system. Then, they seek an alternative design for the worldwide carbon price floor. Besides the global carbon price floor, she and visiting Prof. Jing Cao also researched international climate finance’s welfare effects and optimal design.
Fan Wang, Ph.D Candidate, Atmospheric Science
Fan Wang is a Ph.D. candidate from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). He works with Prof. Michael B. McElroy and Prof. Meng Gao from HKBU on global climate and environmental impacts of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). SAI has been the most-researched radiation management method that could curb global warming to below the critical threshold of 1.5 °C, yet other climatic, environmental and ecosystem impacts have not been well evaluated, making this strategy still controversial. Fan uses the CESM2 model coupled with complete atmospheric, land surface, and oceanic processes to simulate earth system feedbacks to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 to evaluate the impacts of SAI on global climate and environment.
Xiuli Liu, Visiting Scholar, Economics
Xiuli Liu is a professor from the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She studies complex system modeling and forecasting in the macroeconomy, natural resources, environment and population; input-output analysis and econometric modeling; and policy simulation and decision support.
Xiuli is grateful to collaborate with Professor Michael B. McElroy, Chris P. Nielsen and Mun S. Ho, and for the help of Kellie Nault, and other colleagues at HCP for their invaluable suggestions, cooperations and assistance during her time at Harvard.