Dr. Yuan is an SUTD-MIT postdoctoral associate. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and worked as an architect prior to his PhD study. He has a broad academic background in urban climatic research, and has mastered scientific modelling as well as urban design and planning technique. Dr. Yuan has participated in several key policy-level research projects commissioned by Hong Kong Government, as well as actively involved in a few Chinese (e.g., Wuhan and Macau) projects. He has published several manuscripts in high impact factor journals. He developed the Frontal Area Density understanding, which provides an important knowledge linking the built morphology and the city’s aerodynamic potentials. This work is now incorporated into Hong Kong and Wu Han’s urban climatic research for city planners’ references.
The current research specilizes in environmental and sustainable design and urban climatology for city planning and design. The techniques used include the numerical modeling, morphological modeling, geographic information analysis, and statistical method.