Samuel Chen

Samuel Chen (MA, Harvard; DPhil, Oxford) joined the University of Oxford Network for the Future of Cities (FoC) with many years of experience in research, project management, consultancy, education and knowledge exchange, and international collaboration in Asia, Europe, UK, and US. His work at FoC as a university-wide and global urban sustainability strategic platform focuses on engaging relevant branches of the University of Oxford and other British education and research institutions, UK government, industry and business organisations and NGOs to build collaborative education, research and development projects with their international counterparts for sustainable urban development.

He was also a Research Fellow in History of Civilization at Wolfson College and remains a Research Associate in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. His research deals with the emergence and evolution of some of the earliest urban civilizations in the world, focusing on the symbiotic and dynamic relationship between tradition and innovation within their intellectual, social, (cross-)cultural, and international contexts. He has taught the histories, cultures and languages of four Near and Far Eastern civilizations as well as global history in general, with a particular emphasis on human exploration and migration, imperial expansion, technological and economic advancement, and the impact of these on the viability of human living conditions; social, regional and international relations; and the environment.

He has 20 years of experience managing a variety of international research, education, industry projects in different Chinese (Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen), UK (Edinburgh, London, and Oxford), and US (Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.) cities. He has been working closely with relevant UK organisations to showcase UK expertise and capabilities in education, research, innovation and sustainability and to promote and facilitate international collaboration between the UK and other countries.

He is also a member of the Oxford Water Network (http://www.water.ox.ac.uk/).