I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Climate and Environmental Studies at Vanderbilt University. I study the impact of environmental change and human activities on terrestrial ecosystems. A central focus of my work is vegetation phenology, which serves as a key example of the temporal dimension of ecosystems. I employ an integrative approach that combines remote sensing, field observation, citizen science datasets, and Earth system modeling.

I received Ph.D. in Environmental Science & Geology at Iowa State University in 2020, and worked as a postdoc scholar in Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining Vanderbilt at 2022. I am awarded the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Science & SciLife Lab Prize for Young Scientists by Science Magazine and AAAS, Early Career Fellow by Ecological Society of America (ESA), and Green Talents award by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Research interests

• Terrestrial ecosystems

• Phenology

• Wildfire

• Earth system models

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University. I study the impacts of climate change and vegetation dynamics on global fire activity by using satellite observations. I’m also interested in changes in fuel moisture content and its relationship with wildfire. A central focus of my work is fire risk modeling in wildland-urban interface and assessing their threat to human communities. I received my Ph.D. in Geography at Nanjing University in China in 2025.

Research Interests

• Wildfire

• Fuel moisture content

• Vegetation ecology

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University. I study global change and ecology, mainly focusing on the land surface freeze-thaw cycle and vegetation phenology, as well as their responses to climate change by using satellite observations. Current focus of my work is to expand the concept of phenology to Earth system and analyze their dynamics. I received my Ph.D. in Geography at Nanjing University in China in 2025.

Research Interests

• Phenology

• Freeze-thaw cycle

• Global change

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Enviromental Sciences at Vanderbilt University since 2024. My interesting research field lies in vegetation ecology, exploring the impacts of climate change and forest degradation on forest carbon cycling and flammability in the Amazon using Earth system models. I received a B.S. in Geographic Science in 2020, and a M.S. in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems in 2023 at the Nanjing Normal University, China.

Research Interests

• Fire ecology

• Land surfaces models

• Landscape ecology

I am a graduate student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University since 2024. My current study focuses on vegetation phenology using both remote sensing and ground-based observations at large scales to understand land surface changes in response to climate change. Before joining the Meng Lab, I studied remote sensing and spatial informatics at Wuhan University from 2020 to 2024. 

Research interests:

• Vegetation phenology

• Remote sensing

• Earth system modeling

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University since 2025. My research focuses on plant phenology under climate change and human-driven environmental change. I study how artificial light alters seasonal patterns of urban ecosystems, and I am also interested in pollen phenology under climate change. I received a Bachelor of Forestry from Northwest A&F University and pursued graduate studies at Zhejiang A&F University and the University of British Columbia. Before starting my Ph.D., I worked as a Research Assistant at Zhejiang University (2024–2025).

Research Interests

• Plant and pollen phenology

• Human-driven environmental change 

• Light pollution ecology

I am a senior student major in Earth and Environmental Sciences and Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University. I am focused on global climate change and urban sustainability. My current research project investigates the role of green roofs in mitigating the urban heat island effect across different climate zones in the U.S. This research aims to provide data-driven insights into how cities can better adopt sustainable cooling strategies to combat rising temperatures and enhance climate resilience.

Research Interests

• Global climate change

• Environmental policy and urban planning