Dr Jin Rui joined the Department of Geography at King’s College London in April 2025 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Spatial Analytics and Machine Learning.

Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg University, Germany, and earned his PhD in Spatial Planning from the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. With an interdisciplinary academic background, he holds a Master's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany.

He has been involved in research projects at Harvard University, UC Berkeley, University of Hong Kong, and Georgia Institute of Technology. Additionally, he worked as an urban planner at Schneider+Schumacher in Frankfurt.

Dr Rui currently serves as a guest editor for a special issue of the international journal Land (Q2) and is a reviewer for 18 international academic journals, including Nature Cities and Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (CEUS).

More information is available on his personal website

Research

• Computer science
• Geography

Dr Rui focuses on the integration of spatial data science and urban AI, covering the following areas:

• Urban Climate and Hazards: Exploring urban vulnerability and resilience to flooding and other events using remote sensing and machine learning for risk prediction and scenario modeling.
• Urban Visual Intelligence: Applying computer vision and environmental perception to analyze urban morphology, spatial disorder, and visual appeal embedded in SVI.
• Urban Data Science: Leveraging LLMs and multi-source data to investigate dynamic urban changes and underlying social issues.

He is currently involved in the British Academy-funded “Sinking Cities” project, co-led by Dr Zara Shabrina and Dr Emma Colven, which uses multi-source urban data and computational tools to support communities in Jakarta facing flood and sea-level rise risks.

Dr Rui is currently recruiting research assistants with experience in GIS/Python. Please visit his personal website for more information