Mei-Po Kwan (, born 1962) is a Chinese geographer and academic. Her contributions to the field include environmental health, human mobility, transport and health issues in cities, and geographic information science (GIScience).

Education

Kwan earned a Ph.D. in geography in 1994 (UCSB), an M.A. in urban planning in 1989 (UCLA), and a B.SoSci. in geography in 1985 (CUHK).

Career 
Kwan is a Choh-Ming Li Professor of Geography and Resource Management and Director of the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a professor, she teaches Advanced GIS, Business Applications of Geographic Information Science, GIS for Social Science and Business Research, and, Design and Implementation for Geographic Information Systems. Her research focuses on GIScience, specifically as it applies to human mobility, health, transport, environmental, and social issues in urban areas. She has made major contributions to time geography.

Kwan discovered the uncertain geographic context problem (UGCoP) and the neighborhood effect averaging problem (NEAP). She is a leading researcher in deploying real-time GPS tracking and mobile sensing to collect individual-level data in environmental health research. Her recent projects examine the health impacts of individual environmental exposure (e.g., noise, air pollution, green space), the protection of geoprivacy via the development of a Geospatial Virtual Data Enclave (GVDE), and the space-time dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has received over US$62.7 million grant support from sources including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. She has published over 420 books, journal articles and book chapters. She has delivered over 370 keynote addresses, invited lectures and other invited presentations in more than 20 countries.

Kwan had served as an editor of Annals of the American Association of Geographers for 12 years. She also founded the International Geospatial Health Research Network (IGHRN) in 2013 in an international forum jointly organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Hong Kong, Utrecht University, the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (CPGIS), and several other organizations in the U.S. and Europe.

Awards and recognition

James R. Anderson Medal of Honor in Applied Geography, AAG Applied Geography Specialty Group, 2022
Highly Cited Researcher 2021, Web of Science, Clarivate, 2021
Wilbanks Prize for Transformational Research in Geography, American Association of Geographers, 2021 
Fellow, American Association of Geographers, 2020
Highly Cited Researcher 2019, Web of Science, Clarivate, 2019 
Fellow, U.K. Academy of Social Sciences, 2018
Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography, American Association of Geographers, 2018  
Alan Hay Award in Transport Geography, Transport Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG), 2017
Distinguished Scholar Award, International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (CPGIS), 2017
Guggenheim Fellow, 2016
E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award, American Association of Geographers, 2016
Melinda S. Meade Distinguished Scholarship Award, AAG Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group, 2016<
Distinguished Scholarship Honors, Association of American Geographers, 2011
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2009
University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Research Award, 2005
Edward L. Ullman Award, AAG Transportation Geography Specialty Group, 2005
Fellow, Royal Geographical Society (UK) (since 2004)

See also 
 Technical geography
 Torsten Hägerstrand
 Quantitative geography

References

External links 
 

American people of Chinese descent
1962 births
Living people
Academic staff of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
American geographers
Women geographers