Zoe Li

Dr. Zoe Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at McMaster University, with an additional role as an Associate Member in the Department of Computing and Software. She specializes in developing modeling and decision-support tools to address challenges in water resources management, environmental systems analysis, and climate change impacts. Her research focuses on hydrological modeling, probabilistic forecasting, risk analysis, and environmental systems optimization. She holds a B.Eng. from China and M.A.Sc./Ph.D. degrees from the University of Regina.

Her work spans interdisciplinary collaborations, including studies on dam safety under climate change, wastewater treatment plant optimization, and AI-driven environmental monitoring. She has been actively involved in projects such as CityDNA, a digital tool to model urban environments for decision-making during crises like the pandemic. Dr. Li teaches courses in environmental systems engineering and principles of environmental engineering, emphasizing uncertainty quantification and sustainable practices.

Her research publications (15+ recent articles) address topics like machine learning applications in environmental systems, climate change impacts on water resources, and infrastructure resilience. She advises graduate students in environmental engineering and systems optimization. Notable grants include funding from Roche Canada for pandemic-related urban modeling. Her work is frequently published in high-impact journals like Journal of Environmental Management and Water Resources Research.