Chijun Sun

Dr. Chijun Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He holds a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin (2021) and completed postdoctoral research as an ASP Fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His research focuses on paleoclimatology, utilizing biomarkers and climate models to reconstruct past climate changes and assess model performance. Key themes include orbital-to-millennial climate variability, ocean-atmosphere dynamics, and paleoextreme weather events. He integrates proxy data with high-resolution simulations to explore mechanisms driving abrupt climate shifts and their implications for future climate projections.

Dr. Sun’s work emphasizes understanding climate forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, orbital changes) and their impacts on hydroclimate patterns, monsoons, and Arctic expansion. His lab recruits graduate students to advance interdisciplinary research at the intersection of geochemistry, climate modeling, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Current projects address the role of land-ocean interactions in Northern Hemisphere glaciation and the influence of meltwater events on deglacial climate dynamics.

• Education: Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin (2021)
• Postdoctoral Training: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
• Labs/Teams: UC Davis Paleoclimate Research Group

His research bridges observational proxy records (e.g., biomarkers, isotopic analyses) with advanced climate models to address unresolved questions about climate system sensitivity and past climate extremes. Recent efforts focus on atmospheric rivers, mesoscale convective systems, and tropical cyclone dynamics under past and future climate scenarios.