Mengke Chen is the director of Tencent and recently received her PhD in City and Regional Planning at PennDesign. Her research interests include economic development, transportation investment (high-speed rail investment), and transportation and land use. Chen is particularly interested with regards to the impact of high speed rail development on urban economics in Chinese cities, as well as in Europe. The profound societal and economic impact of high-speed rail in contemporary society also constitutes a chief focus of her research. Chen received her Master’s in Urban Spatial Analytics from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.S. and G.I.S. from Peking University in Beijing, China.