About

Dr. Chuan Liao is Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. As a human–environment scientist, his research focuses on environment, development, and sustainability. He earned a BS in Resource Science from Beijing Normal University (2010), and an MS/PhD in Natural Resources from Cornell University (2012, 2015). He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan from 2015 to 2018, and later served as Assistant Professor at Arizona State University until 2022.

His research examines how institutional and technological innovations shape human–environment well-being in the United States and across the Global South. Specific domains include agrifood system innovation, sustainable energy transition, global dryland sustainability, and climate change adaptation. He develops integrated approaches linking statistical, spatial, and other quantitative methods to study human–environment interactions. He has published in Development & Change, Global Environmental Change, Landscape Ecology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Communications, Nature Food, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Sustainability, Science, Sustainable Production and Consumption, among other journals.

He served as Editor-in-Chief of World Development in 2021 and 2022, and sits on the editorial board of Journal of Peasant Studies and World Development Sustainability. He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the Transformative Change Assessment of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). His work on climate-adaptive rice systems in New York State was featured during a visit by Senator Gillibrand to the research farm, followed by discussions with her legislative staff on supporting climate-smart agriculture. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture.