Xiaofan ZHAO is Assistant Professor at the Division of Public Policy of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining HKUST in January 2021, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University (2018–2020). She holds a BS in environmental engineering with honors and with distinction (2009) and a MS in management science and engineering (2010), both from Stanford University, and a PhD in public administration from Tsinghua University (2018). She has worked for the Climate Policy Initiative Beijing Office as well as the World Resources Institute. Her research mainly focuses on energy conservation, climate change, and environmental policies. Her publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Energy Research and Social Science, Sustainability, Energy Policy, the Journal of Cleaner Production, Environmental Policy and Governance, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science. She is the recipient of the Young Scientists Fund, supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), from 2022 to 2024.