Zhengzhen Tan

Zhengzhen’s research and teaching expertise is focused on the transitioning urbanization, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, digital transformation in real estate sector. She is the editor of “Towards Urban Vibrancy: Patterns and Practices of Asia’s New Cities” (MIT SA+P Press, 2020), and the author of the digital cities chapter in this book. She is also the director of MIT-Tsinghua Future City Innovation, which is MIT’s first entrepreneurship education program with a focus on the urban tech sector.

The MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab, of which she is the Executive Director, focuses its research on establishing the behavioral foundations for urban and environmental planning and policies aimed at sustainable urbanization. It also mobilizes the research and education resources of MIT and foster inter-disciplinary innovative work on sustainable urbanization.

Zhengzhen teaches courses in the School of Architecture and Planning, and the Sloan School of Management. Before joining MIT, Zhengzhen was an urban planner and urban designer with extensive practice in both public and private sector around in Shanghai, Singapore, London, and Vancouver. She received her bachelors degree from the Department of Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai and her masters degree from the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore.