Wang Feng currently holds the position of Distinguished Professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, where he has been on the faculty since 1996. Prior to his position at the University of California, Irvine, he had taught and conducted research at the University of California, Berkeley, the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, California Institute of Technology, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has been invited as a visiting professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, Fudan University, Peking University and Tsinghua University in China, Keio University and Waseda University in Japan, and the University of Padua and the University of Florence in Italy.
Professor Wang Feng is a world leading scholar in the studies of global demographic change, social and demographic changes of China, of social inequality, and of comparative population and social history. He is the author of many books and more than a hundred articles in professional journals, books, and other media outlets. His work and views have appeared frequently in major global media outlets. He has served as an expert for the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum, among others. His multifaceted professional service includes terms as Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine (2007-2010), Senior Fellow in Foreign Relations and in Global Development at the Brookings Institution, a leading Think-Tank in the United States, and the Director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing (2010-2013). He is an elected foreign member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (National Academy of Italy). Wang Feng is also a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow.
