Gao, Rui's Home Page
Email addresses: rui.ray.gao@gmail.com | ruigao@ucmerced.edu | rui.gao@usu.edu
Rui obtained his Ph.D. degree from Utah State University, where his dissertation focused on utilizing high-resolution imagery from small unmanned aerial systems, combined with eddy-covariance flux tower data and field labor measurements, to assess plant water status and stress in California vineyards. With a master’s degree in hydrology emphasizing watershed-scale processes, he remains passionate about applying both physical and data-driven approaches to tackle real-world environmental challenges across different spatial scales. While science and technology deeply fascinate him, it is the people behind them, their perspectives on the environment, agriculture, and sustainability, that inspire him the most.
Three Latest News
March 11, 2025: Rui attended SNRI Early Career Researcher Lightning Talks held at the Conference Center of the University of California Merced with topic "Forecasting Reference ET Using Deep Learning".
February 10, 2025: Rui attended a workshop to learn some basic theories about the Eddy-Covariance (EC) flux tower and some general rules to establish the EC flux tower appropriately.
January 28, 2025: Rui leads a conversation about forecasting short-crop reference evapotranspiration (ETo) with the T-REX and SAWS teams.
Professional Services
September 2024 - present | Reviewer for Journal of Hydrology.
July 2024 - present | Reviewer for OENO One.
July 2024 - present | Reviewer for Hydrological Processes.
Apr 2024 - present | Scientific Advisory Board for Journal of Agriculture Faculty of Duzce University.
Jan 2024 - present | Reviewer for Agricultural Water Management.
Oct 2023 - present | Reviewer for Papers in Applied Geography.
Oct 2023 - present | Reviewer for Frontiers in Plant Science.
Sep 2023 - present | Reviewer for Earth System Science Data.
Aug 2023 - present | Reviewer for Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment.
Nov 2022 - present | Reviewer for Remote Sensing of Environment.
Past News
December 12, 2024: Rui received the official offer letter to join the Planet's Education and Research (E&R) Program!
November 15, 2024: "Interactions between ecosystem services and their causal relationships with driving factors: A case study of the Tarim River Basin, China," one journal article Rui was involved in was published on Ecological Indicators.
October 28, 2024: Rui accepted the role as a guest editor for the MDPI journal of Drones in the special issue: Drone-enabled smart sensing: challenges and opportunities.
October 1, 2024: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Journal of Hydrology.
September 24, 2024: Rui was invited to speak to the Secure Water Future (SWF) group at the University of California Merced.
September 3, 2024: Rui starts his work as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California at Merced (https://ecohydrology.ucmerced.edu/team/).
August 17, 2024: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Remote Sensing of Environment.
August 10, 2024: Message Board, a function for recording questions, comments, suggestions, and/or potential cooperation opportunities from my webpage reviewers', has been added.
August 9, 2024: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the OENO One Vine and Wine—Open Access Journal.
August 1, 2024: A research project that Rui has been involved in has one peer-reviewed work published in the Journal of Hydrology Engineering.
July 21, 2024: Rui has been invited to the OENO One Vine and Wine - Open Access Journal as a reviewer.
July 12, 2024: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Hydrological Processes Journal.
July 9, 2024: Rui has been invited to the Hydrological Processes journal as a reviewer.
June 20, 2024: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Papers in Applied Geography Journal.
May 21, 2024: Rui has been invited to give a group talk via Microsoft Teams at Colorado State University College of Agricultural Science.
April 17, 2024: Rui has been invited to join the Duzce University Faculty of Agriculture Journal's Scientific Advisory Board.
April 5, 2024: Rui was invited to give a talk at the Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University. Crop water status and stress monitoring in California vineyards using remote sensing.
March 22, 2024: Rui was invited to give a talk at the Department of Forestry at Mississippi State University on vineyard water status and stress monitoring in California based on remote sensing data and ground measurements.
February 7, 2024: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Agricultural Water Management Journal.
Jan 28, 2024: Rui gave his oral presentation at the 104th AMS annual conference on estimating 3-m evapotranspiration data using Planet and OpenET data with machine learning techniques.
Dec 11, 2023: Rui presented a poster at the AGU23 Fall conference: Utilizing sUAS and time-series weather data with machine learning for leaf and stem water potential assessment in California vineyards.
November 22, 2023: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the International Journal of Digital Earth.
November 2, 2023: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Frontiers in Plant Science Journal.
October 30, 2023: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Remote Sensing of Environment Journal.
October 24, 2023: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Earth System Science Data Journal.
June 16, 2023: Rui started his work as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Forestry (room 371) at Mississippi State University.
April 11, 2023: Rui finished his Ph.D. dissertation defense in the 211C room in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at Utah State University.
April 2, 2023: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Remote Sensing of Environment Journal.
December 4, 2022: Rui reviewed one peer-reviewed paper and submitted his comments to the Remote Sensing of Environment Journal.