Liutao Chen is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, working with Prof. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen. She obtained her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2023.

Her research leverages computational modeling and data science to understand how urban surface changes—from building-scale interventions to regional expansion—impact local climate, energy demand, and public health.She is currently leading the development of deep learning workflows to extract built environment characteristics, and quantify the relationship between urban expansion and extreme heat patterns across the Mediterranean region.