PEOPLE / RESEARCH GROUP
People doing the work.
Critical Load is built by one interdisciplinary internal team spanning research leadership, carbon systems, compute and data engineering, verification, sustainability, regulation, policy and research partnerships.
Roles below describe current responsibilities inside the institute. Publication authorship and review responsibility are attached only when a specific research output is released.
01 / Research team
One institute, multiple disciplines.
The team works across the six research programmes and the shared measurement system that connects compute, place, impact and decision.
Founder & Executive Director
Xuguang Ma
Institution strategy · compute infrastructure · decision systems
Former VP at a Series B climate company · former China GM roles at Gradle, Iron Mountain and Xerox
Research Scientist — Regulation & Governance
Dr. Neo Lin
Regulation · governance · public decision frameworks
Renmin University PhD · government policy advisor
Research Scientist — Verification & Assurance
Dr. Yuanzhe Li
Verification systems · methodology assurance · environmental claims
Nanyang Technological University PhD · Singapore carbon-tax lead · Professor at China University of Mining and Technology
Research & Product Lead — Carbon Systems
Runwen Jin
Lifecycle carbon · product systems · research translation
Wageningen University · former Gartner-recognized product manager · senior product roles in carbon software
Partnerships & Communications
Shuyi Liu
Research communications · partnerships · public engagement
University of California · 7 years in marketing · MSC / SOS NGO experience
Research Engineer — Compute & Data Systems
Yan Zhang
AI engineering · telemetry · data infrastructure
Beihang University · 17 years in AI engineering · Dart AI (YC-backed)
Research Scientist — Sustainability Systems
Marcel Jacob
Sustainability systems · industrial decarbonization · corporate practice
Former sustainability lead roles across Philips and Marlboro
Research Scientist — Policy & Society
Yumeng Liu
Policy research · civil society · public-interest analysis
Peking University · University of California · former NGO researcher
Names, roles and backgrounds reflect current internal responsibilities. Programme ownership, publication authorship and review roles remain visible at the level of each specific output.