Jian ZHOU, specialised in urban planning, is a professor at College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Tongji University. He is National Engineering Survey and Design Master, president of Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute, vice Director of National Researching Center of Historic Cities, Tongji University, chairman of Branch of Urban Planning and Design, China Association of City Planning and, executive director of Shanghai Urban Planning Trade Association and member of China Academic Committee of Historic Cities, Urban Planning Society of China. He is also the deputy secretary-general of World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for Asia and Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITRAP) and the director of WHITRAP Shanghai Centre.

​

He is actively engaged in variety of urban planning and design projects and research programmes especially on the topic related to historic cities, towns and villages. Because of his widely appreciated works in the field, he has received UNESCO Outstanding Achievement Award for Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation (2003) and been awarded as French Knight Insignia of Literature and Art (2005).

​

His main publications include Rationale on Planning and Design of Urban Residential Areas (1999) and Cities Built Upon Cities--- Conservation Practice of Historic Cultural Heritage of French Cities (2003). He participated in compiling the 7th Volume of Urban Planning Data--- Residential District Planning and Design (2004). Prof. Zhou Jian also got involved in many international research projects and played an important role. He conducted a cooperative research with Ministry of Culture of France on the project of Historic Cultural Heritages and Environment Conservation of Chinese Waterside Town “Tongli” (1998-2003), entrusted by World Bank on the research project of Cultural Heritages of Chinese Waterside Towns and its Social and Economic Status Quo (2002), entrusted by UNESCO on the project of GIS of Historic Area of Xitang (2002) and entrusted by UNESCO World Heritage Center on the project of Poverty Relief and Sustainable Management of Cultural Heritage of Historic Waterside Towns (2003).