Professor Zhigang Li is a professor of urban studies and planning from School of Urban Design, Wuhan University.

He services as the dean since 2015, and received his PhD in Urban Geography at University of Southampton in 2005. He got his masters of human geography from Nanjing University, and a bachelor of science from Wuhan University. Trained as an urban geographer and planner, Professor Li’s work focuses on the impacts of globalization and market-reform on urban China’s sociospatial structure. His study involves cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Foshan, with the issues of sociospatial segregation/integration, residential satisfaction, migrant villages, community planning, city-regional development, strategic planning, etc. Professor Li pioneered the study of African immigrants in post-reform southern China cities. He has published more than 160 papers in both English and Chinese. In 2011 he published a book, ‘Transformation of Urban China’s Socio-spatial Structure’, by Southeast University Press, in China. Prof Li is the winner of China’s ‘National Award for Young Geographers’ (2011), ‘National Award for Young Planners’ (2013), and ‘Excellent Youth Foundation of National Science Foundation of China’. Before joined WHU, he has worked for a decade at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

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