Yu Zhou - Research

Research Interests

Biogeochemistry, carbon cycle, nature-based climate solution, ecosystem ecology, climate change impacts,

process-based modeling, machine learning/ artificial intelligence, remote sensing.

Research Approach

How can we integrate data into modeling to better understand biogeochemical cycles?

Research Experiences

2024– ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Research Associate, advised by Prof. Nina Buchmann, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences

SNSF CERES: Impacts of and Climate Extremes on the Resilience of European Forests

COST Action CLEANFOREST: Joint effects of CLimate Extremes and Atmospheric depositioN on European FORESTs

2022–2024 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

Schmidt AI for Science Postdoctoral Fellow, advised by Prof. Yiqi Luo from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Prof. Carla Gomes from the Institute for Computational Sustainability

Schmidt Sciences: AI for Interpreting Dryland Carbon Dynamics

2021–2022 Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

Postdoctoral Fellow, advised by Prof. Yiqi Luo, the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society

DOE LTER: Trait Adaptations to Atmospheric and Soil Aridity Across Dryland Species

2016–2020 Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA

Research Assistant, advised by Prof. Christopher Williams, School of Geography

NASA EVS2 Atmospheric Carbon Transport – America: Advancing Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Models with Atmospheric Carbon Data

NASA Carbon Monitoring System: Translating Forest Change to Carbon Emissions/Removals Linking Disturbance Products, Biomass Maps, and Carbon Cycle Modeling in a Comprehensive Carbon Monitoring Framework

Grants & Awards

Grants

2023–2024 Schmidt AI for Science Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University, funded by Schmidt Sciences (USD 150,000)

"Knowledge-guided AI for process-based understanding of global dryland ecosystems"

2017 Sussman Research Grant, Principal Investigator, funded by Edna-Bailey Sussman Foundation (USD 7,275)

"Fusing Aboveground Biomass Measurements with a Biogeochemical Model to Improve Site-level Forest Carbon Flux Estimates"

Awards

2020 Group Achievement Award for ACT-America project of NASA

2019 Purser Dissertation Enhancement Grant, funded by Clark University (USD 2,500)

2017 Travel Award of Max Planck Institute, Jena, Germany (EURO 2,000)

2012 Excellent Thesis Award of Shandong University of Science and Technology

Scholarships

2016 Libbey Graduate Fellowship, funded by Clark University (USD 3,500)

2014 National Scholarship for Graduate Student, funded by Ministry of Education, China (RMB 20,000)

2008–2012 First Class Scholarship of Shandong University of Science and Technology