He is Cheung Kong Professor and Chair, Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, in Beijing. He also serves as Academic Director of the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, where he also taught as a professor from 1997 to today.

His research interests include terrestrial carbon cycle, biodiversity and biogeography of plants, land use and land use change, and applications of remote sensing in ecology. From 1995 to 1997, he was Senior Scientist and Associate Director at Key Laboratory of Systems Ecology, Chinese Academy of Science.

He worked as an assistant from May 1989 to November 1992, then as an associate scientist from December 1992 to December 1994 in the Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He has been awarded the HeLiangHeLi Science and Technology Progress Award (Life Science); Chang Jiang Scholars Achievement Award, China Ministry of Education and Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Foundation; National Natural Science Award of the State Council (the second class); and Natural Science Award of the China Ministry of Education (the first class). He was also recipient of the Yangtze Scholarship, China Ministry of Education and Yangtze Group. Dr. Fang holds a Ph.D. in biology from Osaka City University (Osaka, Japan).