He received his doctorate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. He has recently published articles in Social Science History, the Journal of Geophysical Research, and, with Emily T. Yeh, in Education About Asia. His current research is related to urbanization and climate change in the United States and China, and he serves on the management committee of the China Historical Geographic Information System project at Harvard University. Mark has co-authored an article in Issue 4.