About

About me

Jianghao Wang (王江浩) is a Professor in the State Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology (LREIS) at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), where he serves as Deputy Director of the laboratory. He is also a Professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab (MIT SUL), and a co-founder of Beijing City Lab (BCL).

His research develops geospatial big data, spatial statistics and AI to measure and understand human behaviour and to build geographic intelligence for pressing environmental and societal challenges. His work has appeared in Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Health, Nature Cities, Science Advances, Nature Communications and One Earth, and has been cited more than 5,000 times.

Research themes

1 · Geospatial big data & spatial statistics. Turning mobile-phone signalling, social-media, remote-sensing and human-mobility data into reliable, analysis-ready evidence — including principled methods for scaling and downscaling Earth-science and population data.

2 · Human behaviour, environment & health. Quantifying at global scale how the environment — air pollution, extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and even urban night light — shapes human sentiment, mobility, health and well-being, and revealing who bears the greatest burden.

3 · Geographic intelligence & AI. Deep learning, foundation models and "intelligent geography" for prediction, mapping and decision support across climate, public health, wildfire risk and urban sustainability.

Selected representative work

  • Air pollution lowers Chinese urbanites' expressed happiness on social media — Nature Human Behaviour (2019)
  • Global evidence of expressed sentiment alterations during the COVID-19 pandemic — Nature Human Behaviour (2022)
  • Global disparities in indoor wildfire-PM2.5 exposure and mitigation costs — Science Advances (2025)
  • Unequal impacts of rising temperatures on global human sentiment — One Earth (2025)
  • Global health benefits and cost-effectiveness of indoor air purification — Nature Health (2026)

See all publications