Awards
- Titled Professor - 2025
- Provost Professor
About Guangqing Chi
Guangqing Chi, PhD, is a Provost Professor of Geography and Affiliate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Indiana University. As a leading environmental demographer, his research offers critical insights into the complex interactions between human populations and both built and natural environments. His work focuses on identifying the social, environmental, infrastructural, and institutional assets that empower vulnerable populations—including indigenous, low-income, and rural communities—to adapt and build resilience in the face of significant environmental changes. He examines the impacts of climate change on migration, health, and well-being, integrating social systems with environmental dynamics to tackle pressing global challenges.
A hallmark of Dr. Chi’s career is the simultaneous development of pioneering spatial and big data methodologies to analyze complex socio-environmental systems. He has created innovative methods for identifying human-environment hotspots, such as areas of high wildfire risk or urban heat vulnerability, and has led the advancement of sophisticated spatiotemporal regression models. His impact on the field is solidified by his foundational textbook, Spatial Regression Models for the Social Sciences, which equips a new generation of researchers with powerful analytical tools. His current work pioneers the use of big data from non-traditional sources, developing rigorous methods to ensure its valid application in social science.
Dr. Chi is a leader in large-scale, transdisciplinary science, having secured over $50 million in research funding from agencies such as the NSF, NIH, and NASA. He has authored or co-authored more than 180 publications, including over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles, which contribute to foundational advances in environmental demography, spatial demography, and the population–infrastructure nexus. He directs major initiatives such as the NSF-funded POLARIS project, which examines community resilience in Arctic Alaska. His expertise directly informs national policy, as evidenced by his work being cited over 2,000 times by news media outlets such as NPR, Huffington Post, and Christian Science Monitor, with his op-ed articles appearing in national publications including Slate and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His work is fundamentally collaborative and transdisciplinary, aiming to create significant real-world impacts by integrating research, education, community engagement, and international partnerships.