Chen Jining


Chen Jining is a Chinese academic and politician. He is the current Mayor of Beijing. An environmental engineer by trade, Chen served as the President of Tsinghua University from 2012 to 2015 and Minister of Environmental Protection between 2015 and 2017.

Early life and education

Chen was born and raised in Gaizhou, Liaoning, with his ancestral home in Lishu County, Jilin. In 1981, he attended Tsinghua University, where he graduated with a BSc degree in environmental engineering in 1986. Chen was then educated at Brunel University London, and next at Imperial College London where he earned a PhD degree in civil and environmental engineering in 1993. After graduation he worked as a research assistant at Imperial College London until 1998.

Career

In March 1998 he became the Deputy Director of the Environmental Engineering Department of Tsinghua University, rising to Director the next year. In February 2006 he was Vice-President of Tsinghua University, a year later, he was promoted to become the Executive Vice-President. He concurrently served as Dean of the Graduate School of Tsinghua University from January 2010 to February 2012, Dean of the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University between January 2010 to July 2011.
In February 2012, Chen was appointed the President of Tsinghua University, he remained in that position until January 2015, when he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection, People's Republic of China. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest member of Li Keqiang's cabinet. In 2015, he was also a member of the judging panel for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
In May 2017, Chen was appointed acting Mayor of Beijing, becoming the 17th person to hold the office since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Chen was a deputy to the 12th National People's Congress.