Alex Wang is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, a Faculty Co-Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and holds the Walter and Shirley Wang Chair in U.S.-China Relations and Communications.

His research focuses on the law and politics of Chinese environmental governance. Previous work has examined Chinese climate policy, U.S.-China environmental cooperation and competition, environmental bureaucracy, information disclosure, public interest litigation, the role of state-owned enterprises in environmental governance, and symbolic uses of governance reform.

His article, "Explaining Environmental Information Disclosure in China," 44 Ecology Law Quarterly 865 (2018), was selected for the 2017 Harvard/Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum. Other representative works include: "The Search for Sustainable Legitimacy: Environmental Law and Bureaucracy in China," 37 Harvard Environmental Law Review 365 (2013), "Symbolic Legitimacy and Environmental Reform in China," 48 Environmental Law 699 (2018), and “Is U.S.-China Climate Action Possible in an Era of Mistrust,” in China Questions II, Harvard University Press (2022).

At UCLA, he teaches courses in torts, Chinese law and politics, and environmental law. He has been a visiting assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Prior to joining UCLA Law, he was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Beijing and the creator and founding director of NRDC’s China Environmental Law & Governance Project. In that capacity, he worked with China’s government agencies, legal community, and environmental groups to improve environmental laws and strengthen the role of the public in environmental protection. He helped to establish NRDC's Beijing office in 2006. He was a Fulbright Fellow to China from 2004-05.

He holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law and earned his B.S. in Biology from Duke University. He is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of the Environmental Law Institute, and a Co-Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the California-China Climate Institute.