Dr Jin Xu BArch, MPhil, PhD, FHEA

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, 2025

PhD in Urban Planning, Tsinghua University, China, 2017

MPhil in Planning, Growth and Regeneration, University of Cambridge, UK, 2013

Bachelor of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China, 2011

Dr Jin Xu completed her BArch and PhD at Tsinghua University, and an MPhil degree in planning at the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge. Her master’s and doctoral research focused on evaluating the effectiveness of plan implementation.

Before joining Birmingham, she worked for several years in the Department of Urban Planning at Southeast University in Nanjing, gaining substantial experience of teaching and research in the area of urban planning and design.

Jin is currently Assistant Professor in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Building on GEES’s strengths in sustainability research, she aims to advance science-based approaches to inform urban design and promote more inclusive, resilient and healthy cities.

Jin has international academic collaborations and professional experience, including visiting research at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (2015), a visiting scholarship in the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge (2022–2023) and work in architecture and urban design firms in Singapore and China.

Module lead:

• Sustainable Places Studio (Sustainable Urban Planning and Design MSc)
• Skills for Planners: Planning Practice Studio (Geography and Urban and Regional Planning BSc)

Other teaching:

• Place-making in Practice
• Sustainable Cities
• MSc dissertation supervision in urban studies and planning

Jin welcomes enquiries and applications from prospective doctoral students and visiting researchers in urban planning and design, sustainable cities, healthy cities, spatial inequality, and data-driven approaches to urban studies.

Dr Jin Xu’s research focuses on two interconnected areas:

Digitalisation and spatial inequality: investigates how digital divide and platform economies shape spatial disparities across urban and rural contexts using spatial data, GIS, and AI-enabled methods.

Multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable urban design: integrates environmental evidence, spatial analysis and design-thinking approaches to develop sustainable design strategies.

• Deputy Head of Global Engagement, GEES
• Peer Reviewer for journals: Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, Environment, Development and Sustainability, Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, China An International Journal, and Urban·Environment·Design, etc.
• Active participant in major international planning associations and conferences: AESOP, ACSP, ISOCARP, UIA, and the World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC)
• Local Organising Committee member, AESOP 2027 Annual Congress
• Invited speaker at international universities, professional organisations and academic conferences
• Member, Urban Planning Society of China
• Fellow, Women's Planners Committee, Urban Planning Society of China
• Consultant to local planning authorities on urban planning and design