Born and raised in Beijing, Qian watched her country's environmental problems unfold firsthand. She worked for the United Nations on issues ranging from development around the Tumen River Basin in northeastern China to children's health, but left the organization to join NRDC in 2001. Now she focuses on reducing air pollution through advanced energy technologies: coal gasification power plants, fuel-cell hybrid vehicles, and biofuels. Qian spends much of her time researching the social, governmental, and economic barriers to the adoption of new technologies and developing strategies to overcome those obstacles. "It's one thing to come in with ideas that work," she says. "But our work is more effective when we can provide some seed money to get the ball rolling." From her post in New York, Qian has raised more than half a million dollars to support NRDC's work in China, and she makes several trips a year to guide the implementation of the projects she manages.
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