Homepage of Prof. Kai Cao

👨‍🏫Short Bio

Dr. Kai Cao currently is a Professor and Zijiang Outstanding Young Scholar in the School of Geographic Sciences at East China Normal University (ECNU). Dr. Cao obtained his B.S. degree and Master degree by research in GIS from Nanjing University, and his Ph.D. degree in Geography from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, respectively. Dr. Cao’s research interests primarily center on Geographic Information Science and the applications, especially on the topics of Spatial Optimization, Spatial Big Data Analytics and Spatially Integrated Social Sciences (e.g., ageing and health related fields). In addition to more than 100 research articles published in various reputable internationally refereed journals, he had also organized and co-edited a few special issues on spatial optimization related topics with some prestigious journals, i.e., IJGIS, CEUS, Cities, TGIS, EPB, JAG. In addition, he had also been co-editor of a reference work in GIS by Elsevier "Comprehensive GIS" on the third volume "GIS Application for Socio-Economics and Humanity". Currently, he is also serving as Associate Editor of "Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy", Editorial Board member of "Computers, Environment and Urban Systems", "International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation" and "ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information" etc.Dr. Cao Kai currently serves as a Council Member of the China Geographic Information Industry Association; Vice Chair of the Spatiotemporal Intelligence and Public Health Committee; Member of the Committee on Theories and Methods of Geographic Information Science; Member of the Marine Spatiotemporal Information Committee; Executive Committee Member of ACM SIGSPATIAL China Chapter; Executive Committee Member of the Spatial Social Computing Group under the Technical Committee on Social Computing and Social Intelligence of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence; and Council Member of the Committee on Social Remote Sensing and Geographic Computing of the China Association of Remote Sensing Application. Moreover, he had been serving as a Board Member of the International Association of Chinese Professionals in GIS (CPGIS) and Chair of the Newsletter Committee. He had also served as 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. Dr. Kai Cao has recently received several awards, including the "Innovative Talent" at the 10th College GIS Forum and the "CPGIS Education Excellence 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