Homepage of Prof. Kai Cao

👨‍🏫Short Bio

Dr. Kai Cao is currently a Professor and Zijiang Outstanding Young Scholar in the School of Geographic Sciences at East China Normal University (ECNU). He received his B.S. and M.S. (by research) in GIS from Nanjing University, and his Ph.D. in Geography from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests center on Geographic Information Science and its applications, with emphasis on spatial optimization, spatial big data analytics, and spatially integrated social sciences (e.g., aging and health-related fields). He has published over 110 research articles in reputable international journals and has organized and co-edited several special issues on spatial optimization for leading journals such as IJGIS, TGIS, and EPB. He also served as co-editor of Volume 3 ("GIS Applications for Socio-Economics and Humanity") of Elsevier's Comprehensive GIS reference work. Currently, he serves on the editorial boards of CEUS, JAG, and other prominent journals in the field. Dr. Cao holds multiple professional leadership roles, including Board Member of CAGIS, Executive Committee Member of the Spatiotemporal Intelligence and Public Health Working Group, Executive Committee Member of the ACM SIGSPATIAL China Chapter, and Executive Committee Member of the Spatial Social Computing Group under CAAI. He has previously served as a Board Member and Newsletter Committee Chair of CPGIS, a Steering Committee Member of the Next Age Institute at the National University of Singapore, and a Committee Member of National Geographic's Committee for Science and Exploration. His recent honors include the "Innovative GIS Talent" award, the "CPGIS Education Excellence Award", and "ISDE Young Scientist Award".

📮News

09/11/2025: Prof.Cao Kai won the Outstanding Teaching Achievement Award (Ranked 1st) in the 13th University GIS Forum!
15/10/2025: Prof.Cao Kai won the 2025 International Society for Digital Earth Young Scientist Award!
09/10/2025: Team's work reported by The Paper! read more.
15/08/2024: Prof.Cao Kai won the 2024 CPGIS Education Excellence Award! read more.
09/10/2024: Weizhen Awarded National Scholarship for Graduate Students!
27/09/2024: Professor David Taylor, Head of the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore, gave an academic presentation at the Estuarine & Coastal Research Building and the academic conference was chaired by Prof. Kai Cao. read more.
22/05/2024: Wenxin Tian published an article in the journal Health & Place. read more.

🔔Opportunities

Our research group is seeking highly motivated M.S. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral research fellows to join us in cutting-edge academic research. Interested individuals are encouraged to reach out to Prof. Kai Cao at kcao@geo.ecnu.edu.cn for details about available positions. More Details.

📲Personal Website in Chinese

Please refer to https://faculty.ecnu.edu.cn/_s33/ck2/main.psp for more information about me in Chinese.

✉️Contact Info.

Kai Cao, Ph.D.
School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University
500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200241, China
Room A811, Estuarine & Coastal Research Building
Email: kcao@geo.ecnu.edu.cn