Xinyu (Jason) Cao is a professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He specializes in the interaction of land use and transportation and planning for quality of life. Cao is internationally recognized for his research on residential self-selection in the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior. He is currently pioneering the use of machine learning in land use and transportation studies, as well as advancing satisfaction research. According to the 2025 Stanford-Elsevier Top 2% Scientists list, Cao is among the 25 top-cited career-long scholars in the subfield of logistics and transportation.
Cao serves as the editor-in-chief of Transportation Research Today and as an associate editor for Transport Policy and Journal of Planning Education and Research. He previously served as co-editor-in-chief of Transportation Research Part D and chair of International Association for China Planning. Cao holds degrees from the University of California, Davis and Tsinghua University.