Fanglei Zhong completed a bachelor of science from the College of Resources and Environment, Lanzhou University, in 2001, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005 and 2008, respectively. From July 2008 to March 2019, he was an Assistant Researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From November 2012 to February 2013, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Japan. From December 2014 to January 2018, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Regional Economics at the Postdoctoral Station of Applied Economics, School of Economics, Lanzhou University. From April 2019 to September 2021, he was a Researcher and Master Supervisor at the School of Economics, Lanzhou University. From October to December 2021, he was a Lecturer at the School of Economics, Minzu University of China, and has been an Associate Professor since January 2022. His research interests mainly focus on ecological economics, regional sustainable development, public sector economics, and natural resource management. He is the Vice Chairman of the Ecological Restoration Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Ecological Economics, member of the Urban and Regional Economics Professional Committee of the Chinese Economics Annual Conference, Visiting Researcher at the Western Ecologically Fragile Areas Field Research Base of the Ministry of Natural Resources.