Joshua S. Fu

Joshua S. Fu is a Chancellor’s Professor, John D. Tickle Professor, and James G. Gibson Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He holds a joint appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) through the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education and is affiliated with the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division at ORNL.

His educational background includes a PhD in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University, an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UCLA, and a BS in Environmental Engineering from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

Dr. Fu’s research centers on climate change, air quality, and energy, with a focus on extreme events (e.g., wildfires, heatwaves, droughts) and their impacts on human health and infrastructure. He employs advanced environmental modeling and machine learning techniques, utilizing petascale computing for global and regional simulations. His work supports major climate models such as the DOE’s E3SM and contributes to international assessments like the IPCC AR5.

His recent publications reflect a strong trend in integrating artificial intelligence with atmospheric science, analyzing air pollution transport, nitrogen and sulfur deposition, Arctic climate dynamics, and the health impacts of air quality. His studies span regions from East Asia to the Arctic and South America, emphasizing global environmental challenges.

• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2020
• Fellow, Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA), 2021
• Board Certified Environmental Engineering Member (BCEEM), AAEES, 2020
• Chancellor's Professor, 2022–Lifetime
• James G. Gibson Endowed Professorship, 2021–present
• John D. Tickle Professorship, 2017–present
• Multiple Research and Teaching Awards from UT and ORNL
• Honorary Professorship, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, 2005–present

Dr. Fu has led and contributed to numerous international model intercomparison projects including MICS-Asia, HTAP, and MMF-GTAD. He has advised and led large interdisciplinary teams and has secured significant research funding. He is the lead of the Air Quality Engineering and Climate Research Group at UTK. His research has been widely cited, with over 200 journal articles and 120 conference proceedings, and he has been featured in major media outlets including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.