Lei Zhao

Dr. Lei Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), affiliated with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE). His research focuses on urban climate dynamics, land-atmosphere interactions, and climate change adaptation, integrating Earth system modeling, remote sensing, and AI methods. He holds a B.S. from Nanjing University (2009), a Ph.D. from Yale University (2015), and completed postdoctoral work at Princeton University (2015-2018).

Education:

• B.S. in Physics & Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University, 2009
• Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Yale University, 2015 (Advisor: Dr. Xuhui Lee)
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University, 2015-2018 (Supervisor: Dr. Michael Oppenheimer)

Research Interests: Urban climate modeling, multi-scale Earth system modeling, machine learning applications in environmental science, climate change impacts, and sustainable infrastructure. His work emphasizes understanding urban thermal dynamics, biophysical feedbacks, and adaptation strategies in the context of global climate change.

Awards and Honors:

• NSF CAREER Award (2022)
• Timothy Oke Award (2023)
• AGU Global Environmental Change Early Career Award (2023)
• Beckman Fellow (2024)

Grants and Leadership: Leads NASA-funded projects on urbanization modeling and serves as Associate Editor for Urban Climate and Earth's Future. His lab, the Urban Climate AI Lab, develops innovative frameworks for high-resolution climate modeling and urban sustainability solutions.

Labs/Teams: Directs the Urban Climate AI Lab at UIUC, focusing on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of environmental science, AI, and climate policy.