Patrik Meyer was a fellow with New America’s International Security Program. He has eclectic personal, academic and professional backgrounds which inform his multi-disciplinary research and narrow the gap between theory and practice in his work. He earned his Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge working with Chinese scholars to provide better understanding of the conflicts in Xinjiang, China, that fuel tensions between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government. He also holds an M.P.A. in Development from Harvard Kennedy School, an M.S. in Structural Dynamics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Before commencing his academic studies, Patrik spent twenty years traveling the world, mainly through the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, where he was deeply involved in Islamic and Chinese studies. Then, as an engineer he specialized in improving the seismic performance of low-cost housing, training engineers, government officials, and laymen on-site in Turkey, India, Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, and China. More recently, he was Adjunct Professor at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, North Korea, where he taught structural engineering and international business. Currently, he is a foreign expert at Peking University, where he conducts research and lectures on issues related to the Middle East and Islamic ethnic groups in China to help bridge ideological divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims.