Founded by the State Council in 1994, the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award of the People’s Republic of China is a national top-tier sci-tech honor. It annually recognizes no more than ten foreign scientists, engineers, administrators and relevant organizations with outstanding contributions to China’s science and technology development. This prestigious national award stands as the highest affirmation of his over ten years of joint research and collaborative innovation with Academician Wu Zhiqiang’s team, and further demonstrates the college’s consistent pursuit of international exchange and open innovation.

Herzog initiated in-depth cooperation with Tongji University back in 2015. He has served as Chief Scientist of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration Intelligent Planning Collaborative Innovation Center, international leading professor of Shanghai’s peak discipline team, principal investigator of Shanghai Peak Talent Program, and committee member of Shanghai Municipal Artificial Intelligence Strategy Advisory Committee. Partnering closely with Academician Wu Zhiqiang’s research group, he built an intelligent planning theoretical framework based on interpreting urban laws via digital technologies and defining urban planning rules with such laws. The team adopted multi-agent parallel computing to develop China’s indigenous theories and methodologies for intelligent urban planning, advancing the national strategy of smart urban planning substantially. Their research outcomes have been applied to more than 20 urban planning projects, including Shanghai Maqiao AI Town, Beijing Municipal Administrative Sub-center and Lingang New City.

The scholar actively facilitates high-level international sci-tech cooperation in artificial intelligence and breakthrough research. He substantially promotes sustained dialogue and collaboration between the Chinese and German National Academies of Engineering, and continuously introduces world-renowned overseas scholars to join domestic research programs. His work delivers critical advances in AI theoretical research and engineering application, laying a solid foundation for Shanghai to build a leading hub of AI urban planning. Herzog has cultivated a large cohort of core talents in China’s intelligent planning field, tutoring over 70 scholars and students, among whom more than ten have become outstanding talents recognized at national and provincial-municipal levels. Faculty and students affectionately call him “合作哥”. His prior accolades include the 2021 Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award, 2024 Chinese Government Friendship Award and 2024 Shanghai International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.