Dong Wang is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU) Crawford School of Public Policy and a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. He engaged in the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project ‘Understanding the drivers of successful and inclusive rural regional transformation: Sharing experiences and policy advice in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, and Pakistan’. As an applied economist with a keen interest in agricultural economics, development economics, resource and environmental economics, and applied econometrics, Dong is also deeply interested in the economic issues in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and developing African countries.

After earning a Master’s in Environmental and Resource Economics from the Crawford School in 2013, Dong relocated to Perth, where he completed his PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Western Australia (UWA). In 2018, he contributed to Western Australian agricultural startups through the Industry and PhD Research Engagement Program (iPREP WA). The onset of 2019 saw Dong undertake a remarkable drive from Perth to Melbourne, traversing the vast Nullarbor Plain and the remote reaches of Outback South Australia. He spent two years working at Victoria University and the University of Melbourne before returning to Canberra in early 2021.

Originally from Inner Mongolia, China, Dong’s upbringing on the grasslands and his exposure to the rapid development of resource sectors have imbued him with a distinctive outlook on the intricate relationship among nature, human society, the economy, and cultural evolution. Prior to his move to Australia, he studied and worked in Jiangsu province and Beijing. Dong holds a Bachelor of Engineering (IT) from the China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT) and a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in China. Additionally, he has earned a Master’s of Project Management from Sichuan University in China.