Xize Wang recently completed his PhD in Urban Planning and Development at USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. This September, he begins work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California, Berkeley.

Wang’s research interests center on transportation and urban form, demography and travel, and active travel and sustainability. His doctoral dissertation, “Impact of Demographic Shifts on the Automobile Travel in the United States: Three Empirical Essays,” investigated how the demand for driving in the United States is impacted by demographic shifts, including immigration, millennials entering their adulthood, and aging. His dissertation committee was chaired by Marlon Boarnet, and also included Genevieve Giuliano, Dowell Myers and Julie Zissimopoulos.

We asked him how he selected his dissertation topic. “As a strong believer in ‘think globally, act locally,’ I love to study issues specific to the cities I live in.  I started to think about how immigration relates to our transportation system (here in Los Angeles). Specifically, if we believe that immigrants in Los Angeles will adopt the lifestyles of the native-born Angelenos, will such ‘assimilation’ include travel? Later I realized immigration assimilation is only one of many demographic changes happening in both our region and the nation. Generational shifts and aging are also reshaping our transportation systems.”

“These ‘bold ideas’ could not have turned into complete research products without my mentors,” Wang added. “Learning to be an independent scholar is much more challenging than working as a research assistant. I’m fortunate to have the world’s leading scholars in our field in my dissertation committee. They were always able to give valuable suggestions when challenges came – they were actually coming quite often.”

Wang’s postdoctoral work will focus on the health and sustainability of Latin American cities. “I’m very excited for the opportunity to study Latin American cities,” he said. “My research experience in Chinese and American cities might help to solve some of the problems for Latin American cities. However, the solutions should be aware of the specific context of each Latin American city. The best practice is always place-based.” He also believes that his future Latin American experiences will also help him to innovate in his future research in the US and China.

Wang’s career goal to be a professor has been inspired by many of his professors at USC. “It is really fortunate to have the opportunity to closely observe how the leading scholars work.” He understands a career as a professor is to “wear three different hats. As a researcher, professors conduct cutting-edge research to seek solutions to the most urgent problems in our cities; as an innovator, they help the local leaders to put those research findings into practice; and as an educator, they bring these new ideas into the classroom to train the future local leaders.”

“Climate change, resource depletion, aging, health, social inequality—the list of the challenges for our cities can go on and on. For all of these global questions, each region should have their best locally-informed response,” Wang believes. “Hopefully I will be able to be such a ‘researcher-innovator-educator’ trio to help local leaders to find the solutions best fit their regions.”

About the Author: Yang Deng

Author Yang Deng is a graduate student majoring in Transportation Engineering at USC. He joined METRANS as a student assistant in 2016, and heads up the graphic and design efforts of the METRANS student team.  He also works at KENDALL Planning + Design as an assistant planner. Deng holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design, and is particularly interested in data visualization, infographics, and using design methods solve traffic problems. He can be reached at [email protected].