SHORT BIO

[2024.12] Our paper on Improving Urban Climate Adaptation Modeling in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Through Transient Urban Surface Albedo Representation has been published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES). Congratulations to my first PhD student, Yuan Sun, on publishing her first paper during her PhD studies!

[2024.11] Excited to announce the release of pyclmuapp (https://envdes.github.io/pyclmuapp/), a Python package for running the Community Land Model Urban (CLMU) seamlessly on your computer—no need for complex dependencies or environment configurations!

[2024.11] Our paper titled Cities Are Concentrators of Complex, MultiSectoral Interactions Within the Human-Earth System has been published in Earth's Future. I would like to thank Dr. Christa Brelsford and Dr. Andrew Jones for leading this effort.

[2024.09] Glad to be a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Talent Peer Review College (PRC).

[2024.06] Proud PhD supervisor moment: my first PhD student, Yuan Sun, received the Best Student Poster Award at her first international conference presentation during the 21st Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) annual meeting.

[2024.04] Glad to have been shortlisted for The University of Manchester Open Research Award, commended for integration of open principles into Earth and Environmental Science MSc curriculum and commitment to open practices.

[2024.02] Honored to join the editorial board of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP) as a new editor.

[2024.02] My role as a Youth Editorial Board Member (YEBM) of Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE) (co-published by Springer Nature), initially for a one-year term, has been extended for another two years.

[2024.01] Our paper on Improving BC Mixing State and CCN Activity Representation with Machine Learning in the Earth System Model has been published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES). I would like to thank Prof. Minghuai Wang and Wenxiang Shen for leading this effort. Really proud that our Machine Learning-based emulator has been implemented within the Earth System Model.

[2023.10] Glad to join the Department Leadership Team of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, where I serve as External Advisory Board and Employability Lead.

[2023.09] Honored to be awarded as a "City Brain Open Research Youth Scholar" by Yunqi Academy of Engineering (a nonprofit research institute).

[2023.06] Honored to be invited to join the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Peer Review College (PRC) as a PRC Member.

[2023.06] I am glad to be an executive committee member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Global Environmental Change section.

[2023.03] Our "AutoML + PM2.5 estimates" paper was selected for featuring as an AGU Editor's Highlight, and this has just been highlighted on Eos.org. Fewer than 2% of papers are selected to be featured in this way.

[2023.03] Our paper on Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) to evaluate the information content of tropospheric trace gas columns for fine particle estimates over India: a modeling testbed has been published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES). I would like to thank all the co-authors and reviewers/Editor.

[2023.02] Our work on "Machine Learning + Earth System Modeling for aerosol modelling" has been recognized as a top cited paper in Earth and Space Science (an AGU journal).

[2023.02] I am glad to be a Guest Editor of the journal Environmental Research Letters (for the Special Issue "Focus on Human-Earth System Interactions under Climate Change").

[2023.02] I am glad to join the Youth Editorial Board Member (YEBM) of Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE), a journal of Chinese Academy of Engineering, co-published by Springer Nature.

[2023.01] Honored to be elected as a committee member of the American Meteorological Society Committee on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science (known as the "AMS AI Committee").

[2022.09] Honored to be a University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) International Affiliate Representative.

[2022.09] Our book on aerosol modelling is out! Our UIUC team (led by Prof. Nicole Riemer) wrote "Chapter 5. Coagulation."

[2022.09] Honored to be a keynote speaker at the 2022 International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC) Virtual Poster Conference to share my thoughts about "Urban Climate Informatics: An emerging direction in urban climate research."

[2022.08] THRILLED to announce my new role as an Assistant Professor in Data Science & Environmental Analytics at The University of Manchester!

[More News]

SELECTED AWARDS (including awards to my mentees)

Best Student Poster Award (Yuan Sun, PhD student), 21st Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) Annual Meeting, 2024
Finalist (commended for integration of open principles into curriculum and commitment to open practices), The University of Manchester Open Research Award, 2024
City Brain Open Research Youth Scholar, Awarded by Yunqi Academy of Engineering (a nonprofit research institute), 2023
CAPEES Founding President Best Paper Award, Chinese-American Professors in Environmental Engineering and Science (CAPEES), 2022
American Meteorological Society (AMS) Early Career Leadership Academy (ECLA) Member (21 ECLA class members were selected in 2022 across sectors of the weather, water, and climate enterprise), 2022
Invited Participant: Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists, ACCESS XVI (an honor bestowed biennially to 25 young researchers worldwide in Atmospheric Chemistry), 2021
Advanced Study Program (ASP) Postdoctoral Fellowship (~10 awardees per year worldwide in Atmospheric Research), 2021 (deferred to start in 2022)
Student Registration Waiver Grant (previously known as travel grants), American Association for Aerosol Research, 2020
AI for Earth, Microsoft, 2020
Earth on AWS & Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative, Amazon, 2020
Kuck Computational Science & Engineering Scholarship, Grainger College of Engineering, UIUC, 2019
Loh Kwan Chen Fellowship, College of Engineering, UIUC, 2019
Travel Grant, Deep Learning for Science School at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), 2019
Outstanding Poster Award, School of Earth, Society, & Environment, UIUC, 2019
Travel Grant, 18th Conference on Artificial and Computational Intelligence and its Applications to the Environmental Sciences (18 AI), American Meteorological Society (AMS) 99th Annual Meeting, 2018
Finalist, SMOKY MOUNTAIN Computational Sciences and Engineering Conference (SMC) Data Challenge, 2018
First Place, Student Paper Award, Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological, and Food Engineers (AOCABFE), 2016
Tau Beta Pi (The Engineering Honor Society), inducted 2016
Alpha Epsilon (The Honor Society of Agricultural, Biological & Food Engineering), inducted 2015

SELECTED CERTIFICATES

Fundamental Engineer (FE) in Environmental Engineering, issued by NCEES, 2017 (Verifiable Link)

RESEARCH THEMES

Environmental Engineering and Science
Atmospheric and Climate Science
Computational Science and Engineering
Data Science and AI
Agriculture

SELECTED RESEARCH PRODUCTS

Book Chapter

Riemer, N., West, M., Curtis, J. H., & Zheng, Z. (2022). “Chapter 5: Coagulation”. Introduction to Aerosol Modelling: From Theory to Code (Editor: David Topping and Michael Bane). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 978-1-119-62565-0

Peer-reviewed publications

After joining The University of Manchester (underlines indicate my students, postdoctoral advisees, or myself)

Sun, Y.*, Fang, B., Oleson, K. W., Zhao, L., Topping, D. O., Schultz, D. M., & Zheng, Z.* (2024). Improving Urban Climate Adaptation Modelling in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Through Transient Urban Surface Albedo Representation. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. doi: 10.1029/2024MS004380
Guo, L., Yang, X., Zheng, Z., Riemer, N., & Tessum, C. W. (2024). Uncertainty Quantification in Reduced-Order Gas-Phase Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Using Ensemble SINDy. Journal of Geophysical Research: Machine Learning and Computation. doi: 10.1029/2024JH000358
Brelsford, C., Jones, A., Pandey, B., Vahmani, P., Allen-Dumas, M., Rastogi, D., Sparks, K., Bukovsky, M., Dronova, I., Hong, T., Iwaniec, D. M., Newcomer, M. E., Reid, S. C., & Zheng, Z. (2024). Cities Are Concentrators of Complex, MultiSectoral Interactions Within the Human‐Earth System. Earth’s Future. doi: 10.1029/2024EF004481
Zhang, S., Wu, Y., Zheng, Z., Wu, Q., & Wang, C. (2024). HyperTime: Hyperparameter Optimization for Combating Temporal Distribution Shifts. MM '24: Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Multimedia. doi: 10.1145/3664647.3681608

4385 submissions entered the review stage, among which 1149 papers (26.20%) are accepted.

Xu, L., Li, J., Yang, S., Li, Z., Liu, Y., Zhao, Y., Liu, D., Targino, A.C., Zheng, Z., Yu, M., Xu, P., Sun, Y., & Li, W. (2024). Characterization of atmospheric microplastics in Hangzhou, a Megacity of the Yangtze River Delta, China. Environmental Science: Atmospheres. doi: 10.1039/D4EA00069B
Zhang, S., Yuan, Z., Zheng, Z., & Zhao, K. (2024). Quantitative impacts of dominant large-scale circulation systems on surface ozone pollution in China. Journal of Environmental Sciences. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2024.07.015
Park, M., Zheng, Z., Riemer, N., & Tessum, C. W. (2024). Learned 1-D passive scalar advection to accelerate chemical transport modeling: a case study with GEOS-FP horizontal wind fields. Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems. doi: 10.1175/AIES-D-23-0080.1
Yang, X., Guo, L., Zheng, Z., Riemer, N., & Tessum, C. W. (2024). Atmospheric Chemistry Surrogate Modeling With Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics. Journal of Geophysical Research: Machine Learning and Computation. doi: 10.1029/2024JH000132
Chen, J., Zhu, S., Wang, P., Zheng, Z., Su, S., Li, X., Xu, C., Yu, K., Chen, R., Kan, H., Zhang, H., & Meng, X. (2024). Predicting particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone across Great Britain with high spatiotemporal resolution based on random forest models. Science of The Total Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171831
Li, W., Riemer, N., Xu, L., Wang, Y., Adachi, K., Shi, Z., Zhang, D., Zheng, Z., & Laskin, A. (2024). Microphysical properties of atmospheric soot and organic particles: measurements, modeling, and impacts. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science. doi: 10.1038/s41612-024-00610-8
Shen, W., Wang, M., Riemer, N., Zheng, Z., Liu, Y., & Dong, X. (2024). Improving BC mixing state and CCN activity representation with machine learning in the Community Atmosphere Model Version 6 (CAM6). Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. doi: 10.1029/2023MS003889
Zheng, H., Kong, S., Zhai, S., Sun, X., Cheng, Y., Yao, L., Song, C., Zheng, Z., Shi, Z., & Harrison, R. M. (2023). An intercomparison of weather normalization of PM2.5 concentration using traditional statistical methods, machine learning, and chemistry transport models. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science. doi: 10.1038/s41612-023-00536-7
Chen, X., Ye, C., Wang, Y., Wu, Z., Zhu, T., Zhang, F., Ding, X., Shi, Z., Zheng, Z., & Li, W. (2023). Quantifying evolution of soot mixing state from transboundary transport of biomass burning emissions. iScience. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108125
Tang, W., Emmons, L. K., Worden, H. M., Kumar, R., He, C., Gaubert, B., Zheng, Z., Tilmes, S., Buchholz, R. R., Martinez-Alonso, S.-E., Granier, C., Soulie, A., McKain, K., Daube, B., Peischl, J., Thompson, C., & Levelt, P. (2023). Application of the Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols version 0 (MUSICAv0) for air quality in Africa. Geoscientific Model Development. doi: 10.5194/gmd-16-6001-2023
Li, L., Fang, Y., Zheng, Z., Shi, M., Longo, M., Koven, C. D., Holm, J. A., Fisher, R. A., McDowell, N. G., Chambers, J., & Leung, L. R. (2023). A machine learning approach targeting parameter estimation for plant functional type coexistence modeling using ELM-FATES (v2.0). Geoscientific Model Development. doi: 10.5194/gmd-16-4017-2023
Raheja, G., et al. (including Zheng, Z.) (2023). Low-Cost Sensor Performance Intercomparison, Correction Factor Development, and 2+ Years of Ambient PM2.5 Monitoring in Accra, Ghana. Environmental Science & Technology. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c09264
Zheng, Z.*, Fiore, A. M., Westervelt, D. M., Milly, G. P., Goldsmith, J., Karambelas, A., Curci, G., Randles, C. A., Paiva, A. R., Wang, C., & Wu, Q. (2023). Automated machine learning to evaluate the information content of tropospheric trace gas columns for fine particle estimates over India: a modeling testbed. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. doi: 10.1029/2022MS003099

Featured as an AGU Editor's Highlight and published on Eos.org
Fewer than 2% of papers are selected to be featured in this way

Pang, Y., Chen, M., Wang, Y., Chen, X., Teng, X., Kong, S., Zheng, Z., & Li, W. (2023). Morphology and fractal dimension of size-resolved soot particles emitted from combustion sources. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. doi: 10.1029/2022JD037711
Park, M., Zheng, Z., Riemer, N., & Tessum, C. W. (2022). Learned 1-D advection solver to accelerate air quality modeling. Thirty-sixth Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2022), The Symbiosis of Deep Learning and Differential Equations (DLDE) - II. arXiv: 2211.03906

Prior to joining The University of Manchester

Yao, Y., Curtis, J. H., Ching, J., Zheng, Z., & Riemer, N. (2022). Quantifying the effects of mixing state on aerosol optical properties. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. doi: 10.5194/acp-22-9265-2022
Li, H., Yuan, F., Shen, L., Liu, Y., Zheng, Z., & Zhou, X. (2022). Improving the WRF/urban modeling system in China by developing a national urban dataset. Geoscience Frontiers. doi: 10.1016/j.gsf.2022.101385
Zheng, Z.*, West, M., Zhao, L., Ma, P., Liu, X., & Riemer, N.* (2021). Quantifying the structural uncertainty of the aerosol mixing state representation in a modal model. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. doi: 10.5194/acp-21-17727-2021

Media Coverage: US DOE Office of Science Research Highlight

Zheng, Z., Zhao, L. & Oleson, K.W. (2021). Large model structural uncertainty in global projections of urban heat waves. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24113-9

Media Coverage: EurekAlert/AAAS

Zhao, L., Oleson, K., Bou-Zeid, E., Krayenhoff, E.S., Bray A., Zhu, Q., Zheng, Z., Chen, C., & Oppenheimer, M. (2021). Global multi-model projections of local urban climates. Nature Climate Change. doi: 10.1038/s41558-020-00958-8

Selected as the Cover of Nature Climate Change February issue
Media Coverage: U. of I. News Bureau, EurekAlert/AAAS

Zheng, Z.*, Curtis, J. H., Yao, Y., Gasparik, J. T., Anantharaj, V. G., Zhao, L., West, M., & Riemer, N.* (2021). Estimating Submicron Aerosol Mixing State at the Global Scale with Machine Learning and Earth System Modeling. Earth and Space Science. doi:10.1029/2020EA001500

Top Cited Paper, Recognized by Wiley
Media Coverage: US DOE Office of Science Research Highlight

Zheng, Z., Fiddes, K., & Yang, L.* (2021). A narrative review on environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation. Journal of Cannabis Research (Part of Springer Nature). doi:10.1186/s42238-021-00090-0
Nandy, L., Yao, Y., Zheng, Z., & Riemer, N. (2021). Water uptake and optical properties of mixed organic-inorganic particles. Aerosol Science & Technology. doi:10.1080/02786826.2021.1966378
Zheng, Z.*, Ching, J., Curtis, J. H., Yao, Y., Xu, P., West, M., & Riemer, N. (2020). Unsupervised Regionalization of Particle-resolved Aerosol Mixing State Indices on the Global Scale. Thirty-fourth Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2020), AI for Earth Sciences Workshop. arXiv: 2012.03365
Xu, P., et al., Zheng, Z., Luan, S., & Zheng, Y. (2020). Spatial variation of reactive nitrogen emission from China’s croplands codetermined by regional urbanization and its feedback to global climate change. Geophysical Research Letters. doi: 10.1029/2019GL086551
Feng, Y., Lu, Z., Zheng, Z., Zhou, W., Huang, R., Sun, P., & Cao, Q. (2019). Chasing Total Solar Eclipses on Twitter: Big Social Data Analytics in Once-in-a-lifetime Events. 2019 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM). doi: 10.1109/GLOBECOM38437.2019.9013304
Xu, P., Liao, Y., Zheng, Y., Zhao, C., Zhang, X., Zheng, Z., & Luan, S. (2019). Northward shift of historical methane emission hotspots from the livestock sector in China and assessment of potential mitigation options. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.03.022
Zheng, Z., Yang, L., Gates, R. S., Wu, J., & Wang, X. (2017). Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilter media. Transactions of the ASABE. doi: 10.13031/trans.12335
Zheng, Z., Lin, X., Zhu, S., He, J., Cao, Y., & Ye, Z. (2016). Investigation on the bactericidal efficacy of atomized slightly acidic electrolyzed water. Chinese Journal of Disinfection. doi: 10.11726/j.issn.1001-7658.2016.04.004 (Peer-viewed, In Chinese) [Cited 10+ times]

Others

Brelsford, C., Jones, A., et al., & Zheng, Z. (2021). Multi-Sectoral Urban Interactions: Fundamental Science Needs to Inform Pathways to More Resilient Communities in a Changing Climate. Workshop Report: Multi-Sectoral Urban Interactions.
Zheng, Z. (2020). Coupling data science and numerical simulations to empower atmospheric and environmental research. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Zheng, Z., Riemer, N., West, M., & Anantharaj, V. G. (2019). Evaluation of machine learning approaches to estimate aerosol mixing state metrics in atmospheric models. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Technical Memo. doi: 10.2172/1513380 (Peer-reviewed internally within Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Zheng, Z. (2016). Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilters. Master's Thesis, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Invited Talks

Zheng, Z. (2022). [Keynote Address] Global Projections of Urban Heat Waves with Machine Learning. 2022 International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC) Virtual Poster Conference, International Association for Urban Climate, Virtual, September 1. (View)
Zheng, Z., & Zhao, L. (2020). Future Climate-Driven Risks to Urban Area. Night of Ideas: Alive! (part of La Nuit des Idées, a global series coordinated worldwide by the Institut Français; this event is organized by the Field Museum and the Consulate General of France in Chicago), Chicago, IL., January 31. (Media Coverage)
Zheng, Z., & Riemer, N. (2019). Coarse-Graining of Aerosol Mixing State Metrics Empowered by Machine Learning. International Aerosol Modeling Algorithms (IAMA) Conference 2019, Davis, CA., December 5. (View)

TEACHING & MENTORING

Teaching

[Spring 2024] Co-Instructor, DATA72000: Extended Research Project Module (Research Training Sessions: "Automated Machine Learning (AutoML)"), MSc Data Science Programme, UoM
[Spring 2024] Instructor, EART60702: Earth and Environmental Data Science, MSc Data Science Programme, UoM
[Spring 2024] Co-Instructor, DATA70202: Applying Data Science, MSc Data Science Programme, UoM
[Spring 2024] Co-Instructor, EART62062: Environmental MSc Tutorial, MSc Pollution & Environmental Control Programme, UoM
[Spring 2023] Co-Instructor, EART62062: Environmental MSc Tutorial, MSc Pollution & Environmental Control Programme, UoM
[Spring 2023] UoM Project Mentor, DATA70202: Applying Data Science, MSc Data Science Programme, UoM

Current Mentees

[2024-current] Wenxing Fu. Visiting PhD Candidate (Environmental Science and Engineering) at Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), China (UoM Co-Supervisor: Dr. James Allan)
[2024-current] Zexuan Zhang. Visiting PhD Candidate (Atmospheric Science) at Zhejiang University, China
[2024-current] Yang Cao. Visiting PhD Candidate (Atmospheric Sciences) at Nanjing University, China (UoM Co-Supervisor: Prof. Hugh Coe)
[2024-current] Zhiyi Song. PhD/MPhil Student (Environmental Science) at UoM (Co-Supervisor: Prof. David Topping)
[2024-current] Jiyang Xia. PhD Student (Environmental Science) at UoM (Co-Supervisor: Prof. David Topping)
[2023-current] Junjie Yu. PhD Student (Environmental Science) at UoM (Co-Supervisor: Prof. David Topping)

Travel Funding to attend Turing Urban Analytics Meeting, awarded by The Alan Turing Institute and the Urban Big Data Centre (Glasgow), 2024
Significant Contributor to City Brain Open Research (Open Data Computing Workshop), awarded by Yunqi Academy of Engineering (a nonprofit research institute), 2023

[2023-current] Fei Jiang. PhD Student (Environmental Science) at UoM (Co-Supervisors: Prof. Hugh Coe, Prof. David Topping)
[2023-current] Yuan Sun. PhD Student (Environmental Science) at UoM (Co-Supervisors: Prof. David Schultz, Prof. David Topping)

Best Student Poster Award, 21st Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) Annual Meeting, 2024
Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) Student Ambassador, since 2023

[2024-current] Jianfeng Jiao. PhD Student (Chemical Engineering) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Dr. Jie Li)
[2024-current] Omar Alqusair. PhD Student (Chemical Engineering) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Dr. Jie Li)
[2023-current] Tianhang Zhang. PhD Candidate (Atmospheric Sciences) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Prof. David Schultz)
[2023-current] Ali Karagoz. PhD Student (Chemical Engineering) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Dr. Jie Li)
[2022-current] Yuchen Zeng. PhD Candidate (Atmospheric Sciences) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Prof. David Topping)
[2022-current] Hao Zhang. PhD Candidate (Atmospheric Sciences) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Prof. David Topping)

[2024.07.24] Xiaochuan Zhang. PhD Student (Environmental Science) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Prof. Hugh Coe)
[2023.10.12] Ali Bony Kaya. PhD Student (Chemical Engineering) at UoM (Lead Supervisor: Dr. Lin Ma)

Past Mentees (After joining the UoM)

[2023] Kuang Wang. Undergrad Student (Biosystems Engineering) at ZJU -> PhD Student (Computer Science) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

[2023-2024] Haofan Wang. Visiting PhD Student (Atmospheric Physics & Atmospheric Environment) at Sun Yat-sen University, China (Lead UoM Supervisor: Prof. David Topping)
[2022-2023] Shengnan Fu. Visiting PhD Candidate (Hydrology and Water Resources) at Dalian University of Technology, China (Lead UoM Supervisor: Prof. David Schultz)

Past Mentees (During my MS/PhD studies and Postdoctoral Research)

[2021] Reetahan Mukhopadhyay. MS (Computer Science) at Columbia -> Virtualitics, Inc.
[2020-2021] Reetahan Mukhopadhyay. Undergrad (Computer Science) at UIUC -> MS at Columbia University
[2017] Yilan Cheng. Undergrad (Civil Engineering) at UIUC -> MS at UC Berkeley
[2016-2017] Yuchen He. Undergrad (Computer Science) at UIUC -> MCS at UIUC
[2016] Jing Wu. Undergrad (Agricultural Resources and Environment) at ZJU -> MS+PhD at ZJU
[2015] Ciju Francis. Undergrad (Electrical Engineering) at UIUC -> Chicago Public Schools

SERVICE

Profession

[2023-current] Committee Member (Elected), American Meteorological Society Committee on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science (AMS AI Committee)
[2023-2024] Executive Committee Member, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Global Environmental Change (GEC) section
[2022-current] University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) International Affiliate Representative

Editorial Boards

[2024-current] Editor, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
[2023-2025] Youth Editorial Board Member (YEBM), Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE, co-published by Springer Nature)
[2023-2024] Guest Editor, Environmental Research Letters

Event Organizations

[2024] Session Convener, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) Annual Meeting
[2023] Program Committee, Data Science of the Natural Environment (hosted by UoM, and run jointly with Alan Turing Institute)
[2023] Co-Organiser, Open Data Computing Workshop on Urban Climate
[2023] Program Committee, Advances in Data Science and AI (ADSAI) Conference (Manchester)
[2021] Program Committee, International Aerosol Modeling Algorithms (IAMA) Conference
[2023, 2024] Session Co-Convener, European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly
[2021, 2023] Session Co-Chair, International Aerosol Modeling Algorithms (IAMA) Conference
[2020-2023] Session Co-Chair, American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting

Grant Panelist/Review

[2024-current] UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Talent Peer Review College
[2024-current] Health Effects Institute (HEI)
[2023-current] UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Peer Review College
[2021-current] U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
[2021-current] U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)

University

[2024-current] Member of the Research Infrastructure Advisory Group (RIAG)
[2024-current] Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA) Committee Member, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
[2023-current] Member of the Department Leadership Team, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
[2023-current] External Advisory Board and Employability Lead, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Advanced Study Program (ASP) Postdoctoral Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), January 2022 – August 2022

~10

Focuses: Urban Adaptation, Urban Climate Modeling, Machine Learning
Mentors: Dr. David John Gagne, Dr. Keith Oleson, and Dr. John Schreck.
Affiliation: Computational & Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) and Climate & Global Dynamics Laboratory (CGD)

Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, January 2021 – January 2022

Focuses: Earth and Environmental Data Science, Remote Sensing, Air Quality
Advisors: Prof. Arlene M. Fiore (now at MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Prof. Daniel M. Westervelt
Affiliation: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

PhD, Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Computational Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020

Advisors: Prof. Nicole Riemer and Prof. Lei Zhao
Dissertation Committee Members: Dr. Valentine G. Anantharaj and Prof. Matthew West
Ph.D. Dissertation: Coupling data science and numerical simulations to empower atmospheric and environmental research

MCS, Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2022

CSRankings: Computer Science Rankings

I completed this degree on a part-time basis

MS, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016

Advisor: Prof. Xinlei Wang
Thesis Committee Members: Prof. Richard S. Gates and Prof. Liangcheng Yang
M.S. Thesis: Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilters

BEng, Biosystems Engineering, Zhejiang University (ZJU), 2015

Top 2

Advisor: Prof. Zhangying Ye

Study Abroad Programme, English Language Courses, The University of Manchester, 28 January – 21 February, 2013

Introduction to University Life and British Cultural Studies, University Language Centre

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

09/2019 – 12/2020: Data Scientist Intern at Bayer AG

Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Enabling -> Sustainability (05/2019 – 12/2020)
Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Data Insights & Discovery (09/2019 – 05/2020)

09/2018 – 07/2019: Data Scientist Intern at Bayer AG

Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Data Insights & Discovery (01/2019 – 07/2019)
Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Measurements Team -> Sensor Intelligence (09/2018 – 12/2018)

05/2018 – 08/2018: Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Affiliation: National Center for Computational Sciences -> Advanced Data and Workflow Group
Media Coverage: ORNL

01/2018 – 05/2018: Data Scientist-UIUC Innovation Center at Monsanto Company

Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Measurements Team
Affiliation (Monsanto Company): GLB Breeding -> Analytics & Pipeline Design
Got summer intern (05/2018 – 08/2018) return offer

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

08/2019 – 05/2020: Graduate Teaching Assistant for CEE 202: Engineering Risk & Uncertainty

Affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Products: Website (deployed by GitHub Pages and GitHub Actions) | GitHub repository

08/2018 – 05/2019: Graduate Assistant for CS 357: Numerical Methods

Affiliation: Department of Computer Science (CS)

09/2015 – 12/2015: Graduate Grader for TSM 372: Environmental Control & HVAC Systems

Affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email:
Office Address:
Address for Publications:
Structure: