Dr Ray Chan

About me:

Kin Wing (Ray) Chan is a Wellcome Research Fellow, specialising in global animal health, biosecurity and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in both the British and Chinese One Health systems. His research draws on insight from science and technology studies, life geographies and animal science to examine the interrelationships between the adoption of digital technologies, farm animal production and antimicrobials use.

He is currently working as a principal investigator on a Wellcome Trust funded project entitled ‘Using Digital Technologies to Manage Animal Health Responses in China’ (2022 - 2025). This project aims at understanding how the adoption of digital technologies transforms animal health practices, creates new form of politics and causes unintended consequences. Particularly, this project critically examines whether the adoption of digital technologies can tackle antimicrobial resistance and infectious disease challenges in China.

He is also working as a CO-I on a GW4 Generator funded project (2022-2023) to collaborate with microbiologists from University of Exeter and Bath university to understand how farmers and agronomists use fungicide in crop cultivation in the SW of England.

Ray is actively expanding the Exeter AMR and Microbe & Society research networks by being involved in two global research projects: EU COST-Action Project on Biosecurity (2021-2025) and the ESRC UK-Taiwan Research (2021-2023).

Before commencing his Wellcome project, Ray was employed full-time on the MRS ‘Tackling AMR’ Large Collaborative Grant – Diagnostic Innovation and Livestock (DIAL): Towards more effective and sustainable applications of antibiotics in livestock farming.

Interests:

Being a human geographer, my research work is founded on and motivated by a desire to better understand the relationships between farm animal production, the regulation of food, and farmers’ and veterinarians’ behaviour in both western and non-western contexts.

I was keen to understand how government policies affect the production and consumption patterns of meat, and also how they affect farmers’ practices in Hong Kong. My publications in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, and Routledge series’ Political Ecologies of Meat show my eagerness to write about how different governing tools have the potential to transform farmers’ behaviours and affect human-animal relationships.

During my PhD, I produced a novel framework which goes beyond the traditional conceptualisation of the Chinese state, and which emphasises top-down policy delivery and state-led transformation. My dissertation has contributed to the understanding of the dynamic role played by county government and the territorial strategies it can implement to manage forest and land resources. Two of my articles, published in The China Quarterly and Journal of Rural Studies, have also contributed to the understanding of the dynamic role and territorial strategies of county government in overseeing agri-food supply chains and food production standards.

In moving toward animal and rural geographies, I draw further insight from science and technology studies (STS) links with veterinary knowledge in order to conceptualise animal health practices of farmers and veterinarians, and their use of antibiotics in farm animals in both the United Kingdom and rural China. My current Wellcome project allows me to critically examine whether the adoption and adaptation of artificial intelligences, biosensors and big data enable farmers and veterinarians to control infectious diseases and reduce the use of antibiotics on farm.

Qualifications:

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Cardiff University
Ph.D Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, UK
MA Human Geography, University of Calgary, Canada
BA Hons (1st Class Honours) Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong