MRC Epidemiology UnitResearch Associate
Population Health Interventions
Qualifications
PhD, MSc, BEng
Background and experience
Bochu obtained a doctoral degree in geography from the University of Toronto and received master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Peking University and Nanjing University. His work is published in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Journal of the American Planning Association, and Geographical Analysis, among other high-impact journals. He led tutorials and labs of GIS and Public Health, Introductory Analytical Methods, and Data Science for the Social Sciences. He gave talks on the food environment to different audiences and was one of the three recipients of the Maple Leaf Scholarship in food insecurity.
Current work and interests
As a health geographer and a healthy city planner, Bochu develops novel approaches to addressing the complex ways people interact with the urban environment and seeks a holistic understanding of how these interactions at various spatial-temporal scales influence population health. He believes in the power of leveraging evidence-based urban planning policies to promote healthy living and draws on knowledge of spatial and behavioral sciences to derive insights into actionable plans for urban health promotion. His recent work investigates how activity sequencing and intra-household coordination shape food behaviors and evaluates the health impacts of planning regulations on food outlets.
Publications
Selected publications
Liu, B., Widener, M. J., Smith, L. G., Farber, S., Gesink, D., Minaker, L. M., Patterson, Z., Larsen, K., & Gilliland, J. (2022). Time-geographic project of household food provision: Conceptualization and a pilot case study. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1-25.
Liu, B., Widener, M. J., Smith, L. G., Farber, S., Minaker, L. M., Patterson, Z., Larsen, K., & Gilliland, J. (2022). Disentangling time use, food environment, and food behaviors using multi‐channel sequence analysis. Geographical Analysis, 54(4), 881-917.
Liu, B., Widener, M. J., Smith, L. G., Farber, S., Gesink, D., Minaker, L. M., Patterson, Z., Larsen, K., & Gilliland, J. (2022). Who’s cooking tonight? A time-use study of coupled adults in Toronto, Canada. Time & Society.
Liu, B., Widener, M., Burgoine, T., & Hammond, D. (2020). Association between time-weighted activity space-based exposures to fast food outlets and fast food consumption among young adults in urban Canada. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 17(1), 1-13.