Dr. Gao is an associate professor at Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGLAS) and honorary associate at University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. His research interests include human geography in general, but particularly urban expansion and regeneration, rural development and land use. He is the author of a Chinses book “Transition and Restructuring: Redevelopment of industrial land in urban Nanjing” and more than 40 peer reviewed journal articles, and is also journal referee of more than 50 peer reviewed journals. Dr. Gao leads two projects with the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) with his current research focusing on the transition of rural land use and its implications to the revitalization of countryside in China. He holds both an MS and PhD in Human Geography from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). He has a joint, integrated appointment as the director of Working Committee on Youth and Early Careers with The Geographical Society of Jiangsu Province and the vice director of Committee on Youth and Early Careers with Jiangsu Land Science Society. He is also a member of Young Editorial Board of the journal Regional Sustainability and an Associate Editors for Human Geography of the Journal of the Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijić” SASA.