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Christine Wen

Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning, Texas A&M University
Dr. Christine Wen is a professor of urban planning, currently at Texas A&M University. She specializes in community economic development. Before entering academia, she worked for Good Jobs First in D.C. producing research in support of transparency and accountability in government processes and development schemes.

Christine received her Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University in 2019 with her interdisciplinary research, supported mainly by the C.V. Starr Fellowship, that bridges developmental sociology, critical geography, political economy, and labor studies. She was also part of an award-winning team that pushed for a more just and equitable tax system for the rural parts of upstate New York.

In her former life, she worked a year-long hydrology research project for the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Prior to that, she helped out with the cosmic microwave background radiation group at Princeton University while completing a bachelor's degree in physics there. And before that, at age 15, she received First-Class Honors with Distinctions in professional piano performance for the Associate Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada where she lived as a teenager.

Christine now resides in eastern Texas with her dog Arthur, cats Salem and Billy, lizard Syren, and parrot Jake (now passed). She loves literature, science, philosophy, art, music, theater, and interior design, and spends her spare time writing stories, boating, bushcrafting, boxing, playing video games, swimming, cooking, studying foreign languages, hanging with friends, and finally picking up piano again after 17 years.

Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel through to 2050 and beyond. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuels uses would change over...

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

The South African governments Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

Technology

Giga Shiba Inu Whales Shift 3.5 Trillion SHIB, Boosting Market Activity

Shiba Inu whales are gradually waking up as the asset has emerged from anemia and has shown some positive price performance in recent days. Fortunately, those big transactions are not related to any sales activity and are...

Coca-Cola Launches Lens Platform to Offer Key Data for Retail and Foodservice

The Coca-Cola Company is launching Coca-Cola Lens, an open-source insights platform that distributes data and experiences from hundreds of thousands of retail and foodservice establishments across North...

Binance Pay Launches Dedicated Shiba Inu Payment Page, Boosting SHIB Use

Binance Pay, Binances cutting-edge crypto payment service, has recently launched a dedicated page to handle Shiba Inu (SHIB) payments. This new functionality offers up a plethora of potential for SHIB holders, making it...

Whales Bag $61M Profit as RNDR Price Rallies Over 3%

Render (RNDR) saw a significant rally of over 3% today, with six whales bagging $61 million in profits, igniting debate about the cryptocurrencys future trajectory. Whales Profit $61M Amid Render (RNDR) Price Surge,...

Shiba Inu and PEPE Surge: SHIB Eyes 50% Gains, PEPE Hits $5 Billion Market Cap

The price of Shiba Inu (SHIB) has surged by 6% this week, with analysts predicting a 50% rally if key levels are broken. Meanwhile, PEPEs market cap has soared to $5 billion after hitting another all-time high. Analysts...