Zheng is the STL Champion Professor of Urban and Real Estate Sustainability at the Center for Real Estate, and Department of Urban Studies and Planning, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the faculty director of the MIT Center for Real Estate. She established MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab in 2019, and is the director of her Lab. She is also the faculty chair of the MIT Asia Real Estate Initiative. Prof. Zheng is currently the 2nd Vice President of American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, and the former President of the Asian Real Estate Society (2018-2019) (and is on its Board now). She is the Co-Editor of the Journal of Regional Science, and former co-editor of Environmental and Resource Economics (on its Scientific Advisory Board now). She is on the editorial board of Real Estate Economics, Journal of Housing Economics, and Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.
Prof. Zheng’s field of specialization is urban and environmental economics and policy, including climate change and real estate, sustainable urbanization, and urbanization in emerging economies. She published in many peer-reviewed international journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behaviour, and the Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Journal of Economic Geography, European Economic Review, Journalnal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Urban Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Transportation Research Part A, Environment and Planning A, Ecological Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. Dr. Zheng has completed or been undertaking research projects granted or entrusted by the World Bank, Fannie Mae, the MassCPR, MITEI, MIT Portugal, MIT MCSC, the Asian Development Bank, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, among others. She won the MIT Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising in 2022; and Asian Real Estate Academic & Professional (AsREAP) Woman Achievement Award (by the Asian Real Estate Society) in 2023. She received her Ph.D. in urban development and real estate from Tsinghua University in 2005, and did her post-doc research at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Prior to coming to MIT, she was a professor and the director of Hang Lung Center for Real Estate at Tsinghua University, China. Her research website is http://www.siqizheng.com
