Name: Xiaolin REN,

Ph.D., Associate Professor of Archaeological Science and Environmental History, IHNS, CAS

Departments and Research Group: Department for the History of Science and Technology in Pre-Modern China

E-mail: xlren@ihns.ac.cn

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2024.06–present  Associate Professor of Archaeological Science, Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHNS, CAS)

2023.01–2023.06  Visiting Scholar at the University of Glasgow, Scotland

2020.06–2024.06  Assistant Professor of Archaeological Science, Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHNS, CAS)

2017.07–2020.06  Postdoctoral researcher of Quaternary Science, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGG, CAS)

2018.11–2019.05  Visiting Scholar in Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Geoarchaeology and environmental archaeology; past demography and land use; the relationships between climate dynamics, landscape evolution, and human social change.

EDUCATION

2017  Ph.D. in Geomorphology and Environmental Change, Peking University, Beijing, China

2015  Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, USA

2012  M.A. in Environmental History, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

2009  B.A. in History and Archaeology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

MONOGRAPH

Human-environment Interactions in the Prehistory of the Central Plains of China (Zhong yuan di qu shi qian shi dai ren yu huan jing xiang hu zuo yong). Beijing: Huaxia Publishing House, 2024. For more information please refer to the following link to the Foreword of this monograph. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Clu0MWNft5CUk0N2kc8H-w

RESEARCH ARTICLES(PEER-REVIEWED)

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiaolin-Ren

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3247-437X

Scopus Author ID: 55962223900

2024

Riris P.*, Silva F., Crema E., Palmisano A., Robinson E., Siegel P. E., French J. C., Jørgensen E. K., Maezumi S. Y., Solheim S., Bates J., Davies B., Oh Y. & Ren X.L. Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. Nature 629, 837–842. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8

2022

Zhang J .N.*, Han J.Y., Xia Z.K., Chen X.L., Ren X.L. et al. Preliminary analysis on the paleoenvironment of the Quanshuigou site, which is located on the oasis area in front of diluvial fan at southern piedmont of Alatao Mountain, Xinjiang. Quaternary Sciences, (1): 206-222, doi: 10.11928/j.issn.1001-7410.2022.01.17 (In Chinese with English abstract).

2021

Ren X.L.*, Xu J.J.*, Wang H., Storozum M., Lu P., Mo D.W., Li T.Y., Xiong J.G. Kidder T. R. Holocene fluctuations in vegetation and human population demonstrate social resilience in the prehistory of the Central Plains of China. Environmental Research Letters https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abdf0a

2020

Li T.Y., Ren X.L., Liao Y.N., Mo D.W., E C.Y., Lu P., Xu J.J., Wu Y.Q., Du S.S. Paleoenvironment analysis of the middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River and Changguogou site. Quaternary Sciences, 40(2): 547-555, doi:10.11928/j.issn.1001-7410.2020.02.23, (In Chinese with English abstract).

2019

Ren X.L.*, Mo D.W., Storozum M.J., Lemoine X., Yu Y.Y., Gu W.F., Lei X.S., Zhang J.Q., Lu？ J.Q., Kidder T.R.* Early urban impact on vegetation dynamics: Palaeoecological reconstruction from pollen records at the Dongzhao site, Henan Province, China. Quaternary International, 521: 66-74, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.07.012

Storozum M.J.*, Zhang J.N., Wang H., Ren X.L., Qin Z., Li L. Geoarchaeology in China: Historical Trends and Future Prospects. Journal of Archaeological Research, 27(1): 91-129, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-018-9119-5

Lu J.Q., Mo D.W.*, Zhuang Y.J., Jiang J.Q., Liao Y.N., Lu P., Ren X.L., Feng J. Holocene geomorphic evolution and settlement distribution patterns in the mid-lower Fen River basins, China. Quaternary International, 521: 16-24, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.05.032

2018

Storozum M.J.*, Qin Z., Ren X.L., Li H.M., Cui Y.F., Fu K., Liu H.W. The collapse of the North Song dynasty and the AD 1048–1128 Yellow River floods: Geoarchaeological evidence from northern Henan Province, China, The Holocene, 28(11): 1759-1770, https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683618788682

Xiong J.G.*, Li Y.L., Zheng W.J., Zhang P.Z., Lei J.H., Zhong Y.Z., Hu X., Li Z.G., Gong Z., Li T., Zhang Y.P., Xu B.B., Tian Q.Y., Xin W.L., Ren X.L., Yao Y.F. Climatically driven formation of the Tangxian planation surface in North China: an example from northwestern Zhongtiao Shan of the Shanxi Graben System. Lithosphere, 10(4): 530-544, https://doi.org/10.1130/L720.1

2017

Storozum M.J.*, Mo D.W., Wang H., Ren X.L., Zhang Y.F., Kidder T.R. Anthropogenic origins of a late Holocene, basin-wide, unconformity in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the Luoyang Basin, Henan Province, China. Quaternary Research, 87: 423-441, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2017.10

2016

Ren X.L., Lemoine X, Mo D.W.*, Kidder T.R., Guo Y.Y., Qin Z. and Liu X.Y.* Foothills and intermountain basins: Does China’s Fertile Arc have ‘Hilly Flanks’? Quaternary International, 426(28): 86-96, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.04.001

Jiang J.Q., Mo D.W.*, Lü J.Q., Liao Y.N., Lu P., Ren X.L. Geomorphic Evolution in Taiyuan Basin During Holocene and its Implication on Human Settlement Distribution. Journal of Palaeogeography, 18(5):895-904 (In Chinese with English abstract).

Before 2015

Li T.Y. Mo D.W. Hu K. Wang H.B. Zhang Y.F. Ren X.L. (2014) Study on man-land relationship from the Yangshao cultural period to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in southern Shanxi Province. Journal of Palaeogeography, 16(6):955-962 (In Chinese with English abstract).

Li T.Y., Mo D.W.*, Hu K., Wang H.B., Guo Y.Y., Zhang Y.F., Ren X.L. (2013) Analysis on Environmental Proxies of the Holocene Loess Profile near Taosi Site in Linfen Basin, Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Pekinensis, 49(4):628-634 (In Chinese with English abstract).

Ren X.L. (2011) Crosby: Crossing the Boundary between the Epidemic and the Environmental History. Chinese Social Sciences Today, January (In Chinese).

GRANTS AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

2023-2026 PI, “Climatic and environmental background of Paleolithic-Neolithic transition and human-environment relationship during the last deglaciation in the eastern foothills of Songshan Mountain”. NSFC (National Science Foundation of China), Grant No. 42277447.

2020-2022 PI, “The Effects of Early Cities on the Environment: A Case Study in the Dongzhao site, Zhengzhou, China”. NSFC (National Scienc e Foundation of China), Grant No. 41907374.

2018-2019 PI, “How did early cities affect the vegetation dynamics”, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Grant No. 2017M620896.

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

2024 Tang Center for Early China Workshop Grant, Columbia University

2022 Member of Youth Innovati on Promotion Association CAS

2018 Jing Brand Scholarship, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge

2016 Student Award of Merit, Peking University

2014 May 4th Scholarship, Urban and Environmental Prize, Peking University

2009 Outstanding Graduates, Nanjing University

2007 Jiangsu Provincial Government Fellowship

SELECTED LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS

2024  Theoretical Frameworks for Human-Climate Interaction: Archaeological and Historical, The Tang Center Workshop on “Human-Environment Interaction in Early China: Archaeological and Paleoenvironmental Research Trends and Future Trajectories”, Columbia University in the City of New York, USA.

2023  Holocene land use and subsistence strategies in the Central Plains of China, 3rd Radiocarbon and Diet Conference, University of Oxford, England.

2023  Incipient urbanism, environmental consequences, and social resilience in the Central Plains of China, Archaeology at University of Glasgow Spring Conference, Scotland (invited talk).

2021 Climate change, landscape evolution and settlement distribution patterns in the Shuangji River valley, Central China since Upper Paleolithic, presented at 9th Developing International Geoarchaeolog y (DIG) Conference. University of Algarve, Faro (online).

2021 Vegetation dynamics, demographic fluctuations and social resilience in the prehistory of the central plains of China, presented at CROSSDEM 2021, Aarhus – Cologne (online).

2020 Holocene fluctuations in vegetation and human population demonstrate social resilience in the prehistory of the Central Plains of China, presented at the virtual PAGES-INQUA ECR Workshop “Past Socio-Environmental Systems” (invited talk).

2019 Early urban impact on vegetation dynamics: palaeoecological evidence from the Dongzhao site, Henan Province, China, presented at the 20th INQUA Congress, Dublin, Ireland.

2019 Assessing Geographical Models of Early Agriculture in China, presented at lunch time talk in Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK.

2018 The relationship between early farming, settlement and environment during terminal Pleistocene- early Holocene period, presented at Annual Meeting of Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.

2017 Study on the human-landscape relations in Shuangji River valley over the past 40,000 years, presented at 4th Conference of East Asian Environmental History (EAEH), Tianjin, China.

2016 How did early cities affect the environment: Geoarchaeological investigation at the Dongzhao site, Zhengzhou, China, presented at the 33rd International Geographical Congress, Beijing, China.

ADVISORS

Zhengtang Guo, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Duowen Mo, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

Tristram R. Kidder, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis

Lihua Wang, College of History, Nankai University

UPDATED:   9 DEC. 2024