My primary motivation for applying to this forum stems from a profound desire
to engage with and contribute to multidisciplinary groups. I firmly believe that the
fusion of diverse epistemic perspectives is essential for generating creative and
innovative solutions to complex real-world challenges, such as climate change and
future pandemics. My passion for Earth and all its inhabitants fuels my curiosity
about the world, encompassing both social and natural sciences. Despite
dedicating considerable time and effort to my doctoral research, I am aware that
my knowledge is confined to a small corner of the academic realm. Thus, I am
eager to participate in this program to explore the world through the lenses of other
brilliant minds and share my unique perspective to enhance collective
understanding.
As a geographer, I believe I can benefit a lot from this forum, especially from
the unique perspectives, logic of thinking, and crucial principles of demographic
science and social science. This experience would help me to identify a distinct
research niche aligning with my expertise, paving the way for meaningful
contributions to academia and society in the future. Additionally, I aspire to learn
from the lives and experiences of other researchers.

My research interests are deeply rooted in Urban Complexity System. I try to
investigate urban issues, such as pandemics and natural disasters, through the
lens of Complexity Science and geo-computation methods. This holistic
perspective, distinct from the reductionist view, necessitates considering the facets
that play a central role in addressing these issues. It extends beyond natural
sciences to include the equally crucial aspects of social sciences. Specifically, I
want to investigate more about complex adaptive behaviors of human beings, how
the systems of interests would change with the adaptive behaviors, and finally
design more cost-efficient and human-centered policies to better combat future
disasters.

The project I have worked on involves exploring the underlying contextual
factors of superspreading places and superspreaders during COVID-19. The
human mobility volumes originating from or destined for different locations in a city
follows the scaling law. We found that this spatial structure of mobility significantly
impacts the transmission risk across various locations in a city. The crucial
implication of this finding is that not only the high traffic of a specific location but
also its global structural position is of great importance.