Xuanyi Nie joined the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in 2023 as an assistant professor. He is broadly interested in the actors and approaches driving equitable and healthy urban futures. His scholarship explores the entrepreneurial roles of healthcare and innovation actors in urban development, institutional and social forces behind equitable urban governance, and inclusive social and spatial responses to aging and well-being. A critical part of his work is based on transnational dialogues, in which China, Southeast Asia, and North America are important sites.
Before joining the University at Buffalo, he worked at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as a postdoctoral research fellow. He has taught at the National University of Singapore, Roger Williams University, and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Xuanyi has practiced architecture and urban design and has worked at UN-Habitat on planning consultancy in developing countries. With an interdisciplinary background, he strives to integrate planning methods, design practices, and social science thinking in his research and teaching.