Dr. Gao is an Associate Professor with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. He is an elected member in the graduate fields of 1) Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2) Air Quality in Earth and Atmospheric Science, 3) Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA), and 4) Systems Engineering at Cornell University. His research focuses on quantitative modeling and development of engineering systems solutions for sustainable and intelligent infrastructure and lifeline systems, low carbon and low emission transportation systems, and the closely related environment (especially air quality and climate change)-energy systems. He also studies alternative transportation/energy technologies, systems innovation, and green supply chain and logistics (e.g., sustainable food systems, quantifying and mitigating green-house gas emissions from food supply chains). He is a member of Transportation Research Board Committee on Transportation and Air Quality (ADC20), an academic member on the Federal Advisory Committee of US EPA MOVES model development, a member of Transportation Research Board Committee on Maintenance Equipment (AHD60), and a member of the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (ACSF). Gao received his graduate degrees (Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, M.S. in Statistics, and M.S. in Agriculture and Resource Economics) from the University of California at Davis in 2004, M.S. degree in Civil Engineering in 1999, and duel undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and Civil Engineering in 1996 from Tsinghua University, China. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. Before joining Cornell, Gao was a quant in the mathematical and econometrical modeling division at the Rohatyn Group, LLG, a Wall Street hedge fund specializing in emerging markets such as the BRIC countries.

【About Report】：

　　Transportation-related air pollution, GHG emissions and energy problems are a significant issue in China, the U.S. and across the world. The World Health Organization estimates that urban air pollution causes 200,000 deaths per year worldwide and that it will be responsible for 8 million premature deaths from 2000 to 2020. Sacrificing transportation needs for environmental quality is simply infeasible since transportation provides a vital wheel for economic development. How do we meet the transportation needs in the age of development without sacrificing environment and energy sustainability?
　　Gao’s research and teaching focus on the nexus of transportation and environment/energy systems. The overarching goal of his research predicates on a multi-disciplinary system-driven approach to novel basic research, applied research and policy discoveries that will advance the understanding of the transportation-air quality-energy nexuses, where the lack of science and knowledge is the biggest barrier to sustainable infrastructure, air quality and energy policies. In this talk Dr. Gao takes a phased approach looking into the depth and their inter-relationships of the following six intermingling topics that span across transportation, air quality, and energy systems: cleanup of the transportation system—mathematical modeling in search for cost-effective environment abatement strategies; equity and environmental justice in green transportation programs; transportation emission and ozone pollution: emphasizing the need to integrate transportation and air quality modeling; PM2.5 pollution and transportation, and public policy.