Lou Yongqi, male, ethnic Han Chinese, was born in March 1974, with his ancestral hometown in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, is a Professor and doctoral supervisor. He previously served as Dean of College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University and Vice President of Tongji University. Since April 2025, he has been serving as President of Shanghai University of Engineering Science.
His concurrent roles include: Standing Committee Member of the 14th Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC); Chairman of China Creative Studies Institute; Vice President of Shanghai Friendship Association for Non-Party-Intellectuals; Chairman of the National Design Professional Degree Graduate Education Guidance Committee; Secretary General of the 8th State Council Design Discipline Evaluation Committee.
He was selected as Chang Jiang Distinguished Professor under Ministry of Education’s Chang Jiang Scholars Program (2018), Fellow of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) (2019), and First Chinese recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art, UK (2023).
Being a pioneer in design-driven innovation, he focuses on AI-empowered social innovation and sustainable design practices, education and research. His achievements have been put into application across areas including urban-rural interaction, industrial transformation, education reform, and community development, etc. As Chief Expert of Ministry of Education's innovation team for “Research on Design-Empowered High-Quality Urban Development”, his works have been exhibited in Design Museum of Helsinki in Finland, Triennale Design Museum of Milan in Italy, and Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial in France. He is the founding executive editor of She Ji, the Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation (published by Elsevier) and serves as an editorial board member of multiple academic journals including Design Issues (MIT Press). He was invited as a keynote speaker at prestigious events such as WDC 2024, BoDW 2019, IFI 2017, IDSA 2016, ACM SIGCHI 2015. He has served as Executive Board Member/Vice President of CUMULUS, Executive Board Member of World Design Organization (WDO), co-chair of the 9th IASDR Congress in 2021, Creative Director of WDCC (2022-2024) and Chief Curator for China Pavilion at Milan Triennale 2025.
He has received numerous awards, including the National Teaching Achievement Award (Second Prize); the Special Prize for Teaching Achievement in Shanghai; 2024 Annual Person of Shanghai Science and Innovation Education; Knight, First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland by the President of Finland; Special Award of “Reform and Opening 40th Anniversary”, Dragon Design Foundation; Golden Medal of “70th Anniversary of People's Republic of China” Special Award, Dragon Design Foundation, etc.