Zhen Lei is currently a professor of energy and environmental economics at Penn State. He has expertise in both economics and natural sciences, holding a Ph.D. degree in Agricultural & Resource Economics and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. His research interests include energy and environmental economics, health economics, science and technology policy, economics of innovation and intellectual properties, big data and data science, industrial organization, development economics, and applied econometrics.
Lei conducts a policy-oriented, interdisciplinary and data-intensive research program at the nexus of energy and environment, public health, science and innovation, and big data. The three research themes that drive my work include: (1) Energy and environmental economics and policy, investigating firm strategies, consumer behavior, well-being including health of vulnerable and underserved communities, and government policies during energy transition; (2) Science and innovation policy, and intellectual property rights, focusing on institutions and policies (such as the patent system and university research and technology licensing) impacting innovations including those in energy, environment and critical materials; and (3) Data science and big data, applying data mining, learning and modeling to large data sets related to science and innovation (e.g., patents and publication datasets), energy and environment, and public health.