{"id":1352,"date":"2019-02-14T15:28:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T07:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinaplanning.org\/alpha\/?page_id=1352"},"modified":"2026-03-24T19:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:54:34","slug":"karenpolenskeaward","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/karenpolenskeaward\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen R. Polenske Best Student Paper Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
Announcement<\/span>Description<\/span>Past Recipients<\/span><\/div>
\n

The International Association for China Planning (IACP) is pleased to announce the 2026 Karen Polenske Best Student Paper competition for the 20th IACP conference in Xi\u2019an, China (July 10-13, 2026).<\/p>\n

Eligibility<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Applicants must:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Hold an active IACP membership at the time of application<\/li>\n
  • Be an IACP student member enrolled in universities outside of China<\/li>\n
  • Be either the sole author or the lead author of a paper that has been accepted for presentation at the 20th IACP Conference.<\/li>\n
  • Will be able to attend and present the paper at the 20th IACP conference in person.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Past winners of the same award are not eligible to apply again.<\/p>\n

    Application Procedure<\/strong><\/p>\n

    To be considered for this award, please email your full paper accepted for presentation at the 20th IACP Conference in English and a screenshot showing your active IACP membership status as a single PDF named \u201cYourLastName_2026IACPKarenPolenske\u201d by April 30th, 2026, to the IACP award committee led by Kerry Fang (kfang@illinois.edu).<\/p>\n

    Submitted papers will be evaluated by a review committee selected by the IACP award committee. The winner will be announced at the conference in Xi\u2019an. The winner is required to present the paper at the 20th IACP conference. The winner will receive free conference registration, free lodging, plus US$1,500 (or Chinese RMB of an equivalent value).<\/p>\n

    This award, established in honor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Karen Polenske \u2013 a prominent regional economist and a leading scholar of China\u2019s sustainable development \u2013 is awarded annually to student IACP members who present excellent research at major international planning conferences. Currently the IACP presents one Polenske award at their annual conference in China and one Polenske award at their annual membership meeting in the United States during the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) conference. The Karen Polenske Best Student Paper Award has been made possible by generous donations given by several distinguished individuals who are mostly Professor Polenske\u2019s former students.<\/p>\n

    Please Note: This is a different award from the ACSP\/IACP Karen R. Polenske Best Student Paper Award. Applicants may only apply for one of the following Best Paper Award categories: Karen R. Polenske Best Student Paper, ACSP\/IACP Karen R. Polenske Best Student Paper Award, IACP Best Student Paper Award, or Urban Digital Transformation and Healthy City Award. However, they may also apply for other awards, such as the IACP Travel Awards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
    \n<\/div>\n
    \n

    The Karen R. Polenske Best Student Paper award, established in honor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Karen Polenske – a prominent regional economist and a leading scholar of China’s sustainable development – is given annually to student IACP members who present excellent research on China\u2019s urban planning and development at major international planning conferences. Currently the IACP presents one Polenske award at the IACP annual conference in China and one Polenske award at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) conference.<\/p>\n

    IACP raises and maintains donations to the Polenske Fund under the leadership of two volunteers:
    \nSHEN, Qing (Chair), and
    \nYAN, Meizhi (Co-Chair).<\/p>\n

    Current donors (in alphabetical order) to the Polenske Fund include:<\/p>\n

    Second round (2020 and after):
    \nCHEN, Hao;
    \nFAN, Peilei;
    \nGUO, Wei;
    \nHE, Shiqian;
    \nLI, Xiangming;
    \nLIU, Jianzheng;
    \nYAN, Meizhi;
    \nYANG, Zhizhong;
    \nZHAN, Guo;
    \nZHANG, Yabei; and
    \nMIT China Lab<\/p>\n

    First round (before 2020):
    \nCHEN, Junyu \/ YAN, Meizhi;
    \nLI, Xiangming \/ YANG, Qi;
    \nYANG, Jiawen; and
    \nYANG, Zhizhong.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n<\/div>\n
    \n

    Siwei Zhang (2025): PhD candidate at\u00a0 the University of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

    Zhenhua Li (2024): PhD candidate at City University of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

    Chen Yang (2023): Ph.D. candidate in School of Planning at University of Waterloo.<\/p>\n

    Tao Tao (2022): Ph.D. candidate in Humphrey School of Public Affairs at University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

    Sicheng Wang (2021): Postdoctoral Research Associate at Michigan State University.<\/p>\n

    Sicheng Wang (2020): Ph.D. candidate in Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.<\/p>\n

    Tianren Yang (2019): Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n

    Zifeng Chen ( 2018): PhD student in Urban Planning and Design at University of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

    Xinyi Wu (2017): PhD student at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

    Kailai Wang (2016): PhD student in City and Regional Planning at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n

    Jianzheng Liu ( 2015): PhD candidate in Urban Planning and Design at University of Hong Kong. Currently post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture of The University of Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Chung Ho Kim (2014): PhD candidate in Urban Design and Planning at University of Washington. Currently Assistant Professor at University of Seoul.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Yingchan Zhang (2013): PhD student in Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Hao Huang (2012): PhD candidate in Geography at University of Utah. Currently Assistant Professor of Social Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Nick Smith (2011): PhD student in Urban Planning, Harvard University. Currently Assistant Professor of Social Sciences (Urban Studies), Yale-NUS College.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Suwan Shen (2010): PhD student in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida. Currently Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
    \n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-onecolumn.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4218,"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1352\/revisions\/4218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.china-planning.org\/alpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}