1. Basic Information

Dr. Ehsan Elahi (PhD) is a Professor at the School of Management, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology (ZUST). He concurrently holds an Adjunct Professor position at Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Before joining ZUST, Dr. Elahi served as a Full Professor (Distinguished Professor) at Shandong University of Technology and built an extensive international research profile, with sustained academic collaboration spanning Australia, Germany, Korea, Japan, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Dr. Elahi has been recognized as a Top 2% Global Scientist in Environmental Sciences by Stanford University / Elsevier for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, 2025), with multiple ESI Top 1% Highly Cited Papers and Hot Papers. He has served as Project Leader of a National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grant and has been awarded the Taishan Young Scholar talent title by the People's Government of Shandong Province, China. He is currently the Principal Investigator of an ongoing Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN, Japan) grant (2025–2027), with country collaborators from Australia, Japan, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Area of Research Interest: Environmental Economics; Food and Water Security; Climate Risk and Climate-Smart Agriculture; Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Low-Carbon Farming Systems; Energy Optimization in Agriculture (ANN, IGWO, hybrid optimization algorithms); Behavioral Economics of Farmer Adaptation; Remote Sensing and AI-Driven Climate Intelligence.

2. Representative Academic Achievements

Dr. Elahi has published extensively in top-tier, high-impact journals, including Technovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Land Use Policy, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Applied Energy, among many others. With over a decade of academic and research leadership, Dr. Elahi also serves as a reviewer and editorial board member for numerous international SCI/SSCI-indexed journals, and has successfully supervised postgraduate students and a team of early-career researchers on applied research in energy optimization, GHG mitigation, and climate adaptation.

Honors and Awards:

1. Taishan Young Scholar (泰山学者青年专家) — Provincial High-Level Talent Support Programme, awarded by the People's Government of Shandong Province (March 2021).

2. Outstanding Foreign Expert (优秀外国专家) — awarded by the Shandong Education Association for International Exchange (SDEAIE), Shandong Province (December 2023).

3. Outstanding Foreign Expert (优秀外国专家) — awarded by the Organizing Committee of the Zibo Talent Festival (September 2023).

4. Zibo Outstanding Social Science Achievement Awards — First Prize, 35th Edition (October 2022, Ranking 1/3) and Second Prize, 36th Edition (October 2023, Ranking 1/3), awarded by the Zibo Social Science Evaluation Committee.

Representative Publications:

1. Elahi et al. (2022). Extreme weather events risk to crop-production and the adaptation of innovative management strategies to mitigate the risk: A retrospective survey of rural Punjab, Pakistan. Technovation, 117, 102255. (SSCI/SCIE, Q1, IF 10.09, ABDC A, ABS 3, ESI Top 1% Highly Cited and Hot Paper) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2021.102255

2. Elahi et al. (2022). Estimating smart energy inputs packages using hybrid optimisation technique to mitigate environmental emissions of commercial fish farms. Applied Energy, 326, 119602. (SCIE, Q1, IF 11, ABDC A, ESI Top 1% Highly Cited and Hot Paper) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119602

3. Elahi et al. (2022). Understanding farmers' intention and willingness to install renewable energy technology: A solution to reduce the environmental emissions of agriculture. Applied Energy, 309, 118459. (SCIE, Q1, IF 11, ABDC A, ESI Top 1% Highly Cited and Hot Paper) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118459

4. Elahi et al. (2022). Application of an artificial neural network to optimise energy inputs: An energy- and cost-saving strategy for commercial poultry farms. Energy, 244, 123169. (SCIE, Q1, IF 9.4; ESI Top 1% Highly Cited and Hot Paper) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.123169

5. Elahi et al. (2024). Assessing the carbon emission efficiency of food production and investigating influencing factors in the Yangtze River Basin of China. Agricultural Systems, 218, 103986. (SCIE, Q1, IF 6.1; ESI Top 1% Highly Cited and Hot Paper) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.103986

Representative Projects:

Principal Investigator (International Projects):

1. Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN, Japan) — Climate-adaptive pest management in South Asian rice systems (CBA2025-06MY-Elahi). 2026–2027. PI (1/12)

Principal Investigator (National and Provincial Projects):

2. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) — Climate adaptation for food security (71850410541). 2019. PI (1/1).

3. Taishan Scholar Foundation, People's Government of Shandong Province, China — Farmers' willingness to pay for green energy in Asia (tsqn202103070). 2021–2025. PI (1/1).

4. People's Government of Nanjing, China — IC industry growth strategy, Yangtze River Northern New District. Municipal grant. 2018. PI (1/1).

Co- Principal Investigator:

5. Shandong Social Science Planning Research Programme — Digital finance and agricultural product processing (23DJJJ21). 2023–2025. Co-PI (5/5).

6. Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Fund — Environmental governance in the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration (17DDA007). 2017–2018. Co-PI (2/4).