Dr. GU Hongyan is Assistant Professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Institute of China Studies. She received her Ph.D. in government and international relations from the University of Sydney, Australia in 2010. Before joining the Institute, she worked three years at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, first as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellow and then as a research associate with the International Satoyama Initiative Programme. She was also a recipient of the Japan Foundation fellowship and spent one year (2007-2008) at Nagoya University during her PhD candidature.

Dr. Gu’s research interests lie in environmental policy and governance, public participation and sustainable rural development. She has published in leading international journals including Ecology and Society, Forest Policy and Economics. Dr. Gu can be reached at gu@sass.org.cn.