Hein is a Senior Transportation Research Associate at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, where he manages projects and conducts research on innovative mobility enterprises, transport electrification, open mobility data and transport mapping, and paratransit systems in the developing world, especially in East Africa and India. Hein also coordinates program management on DigitalTransport4Africa (DT4A), which maps, digitizes, and curates informal mass transit systems in African cities.

Hein has extensive international experience working on public transportation projects in Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining WRI, Hein worked for UN-Habitat and UNFPA in Myanmar as an urbanization consultant for the 2014 National Census Thematic Report on Migration and Urbanization. Hein also interned for the Housing, Economic and Infrastructure Planning (HEIP) Division of the New York City Department of Planning, where he mapped the synergies between “Innovative economy” firms.

Hein earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Humanities from Bucknell University. He received his Master of City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, and Master of Science in Analytics from Georgia Institute of Technology. Hein is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science at Georgia Tech.

Reading is a prerequisite for Hein’s global work. Books that have expanded Hein’s bubble in recent years include India after Gandhi (by Ramchandra Guha), The Hour of the Star (by Clarice Lispector), In My Father’s House (by Kwame Anthony Appiah), and Bernoulli’s Fallacy (by Aubrey Clayton).