Gabrielle Leung

Gabrielle "Bee" Leung is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, starting her tenure-track position in Fall 2026. Prior to that, she will join as an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow in August 2025 to establish her research group. She earned her PhD from Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, where her research focused on human impacts on cloud and precipitation systems through aerosol emissions, land-use change, and climate change.

• PhD, Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University

Her research lies at the intersection of climate science, remote sensing, and atmospheric dynamics, with a focus on aerosol-cloud interactions, land-atmosphere coupling, and tropical convective processes. She uses satellite data, field observations, and cloud-resolving models to investigate how anthropogenic changes—such as deforestation, urbanization, and pollution—affect cloud development. A key innovation in her work is the application of object-based analysis to track cloud systems and quantify mesoscale variability. Her concept of the aerosol breeze—a mesoscale circulation driven by aerosol gradients—has advanced understanding of how spatial heterogeneity affects cloud formation.

The recent articles highlight a consistent trajectory in her research: leveraging high-resolution data and modeling to dissect complex interactions between aerosols, land cover, and convection. Her work spans observational studies over Southeast Asia, idealized simulations, and NASA mission-related analysis (e.g., INCUS, CAMP2Ex). Broad keywords include Climate Science, Remote Sensing, and Atmospheric Physics, while subfields such as deforestation impacts, cold pool dynamics, and sub-kilometer modeling reveal her methodological and regional focus on tropical and mesoscale processes.

Her scientific achievements have been recognized through several awards:

• Maria Silva Dias Award (2025)
• Herbert Riehl Memorial Award (2023)
• David L. Dietrich Honorary Scholarship (2022)
• NASA FINESST Award (2022)

She has been actively involved in mentoring and outreach, including guest lectures, K–12 science demonstrations (e.g., CSU Little Shop of Physics), and leadership in field campaigns such as BACS-II and TIME-SLICE. She has no formal advisees yet but is expected to build a graduate research group at UW–Madison. She has secured competitive grants, most notably the NASA FINESST grant, which supports her PhD research on land-aerosol-cloud interactions in the Maritime Continent. Her future work will likely expand on these themes, integrating satellite observations with modeling to improve climate predictions.

She is involved in multiple research teams and campaigns, including the NASA INCUS mission, CAMP2Ex, and BACS-II, where she has led drone and radiosonde operations. Her lab will be established at UW–Madison starting in 2025, focusing on cloud-resolving modeling, satellite data analysis, and process-level understanding of convective systems.