Yue Cynthia Wu, Ph.D.
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Internal Waves ⋅ Physical Oceanography
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Internal Waves ⋅ Physical Oceanography
Dr. Wu's research focuses on the dynamics and energetics of waves and turbulence in geophysical fluids, employing theoretical and numerical approaches to advance the understanding of their interactions and broader implications in the Earth system.
2023—now, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan
2022—2023, Research Fellow, University of Michigan
2019—2021, Postdoctoral Investigator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Ph.D. in Applied Ocean Science, University of California San Diego, 2018
M.S. in Applied Ocean Science, University of California San Diego, 2014
B.Eng. in Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2012
Wu, Y., Kunze, E., Tandon, A., and Mahadevan, A. Lee-Wave Energy Sinks in Bottom-Intensified Flow. Under revision for Journal of Physical Oceanography.
Wang, G., Wu, Y., Pan, Y., Momeni, K., Skitka, J., Menemenlis, D., Arbic, B., and Peltier, W. Impact of Wave Interference on the Consistency Relations of Internal Gravity Waves near the Ocean Bottom. Under revision for Journal of Physical Oceanography.
Tseng, Z.-E., Wu, Y., Ruf, C., Menemenlis, D., and Pan, Y. Distribution and Transport of Fragmenting Microplastics in a 3D Global Eulerian Model. Under revision for Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Tseng, Z.-E., Wu, Y., Ruf, C., Menemenlis, D., and Pan, Y. Effect of Biofouling on Microplastic Transport in a 3-D Global Eulerian Model. Under revision for Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Jia, Y., Chen, S., Pan, Y., Li, X., Shi, L., Jung, C., Yuan, H., Alkhouri, I., Wu, Y., Ravishankar, S., Fessler, J. A., and Qu, Q. (2026). ForcingDAS: Unified and Robust Data Assimilation via Diffusion Forcing. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2026.
Jia, Y., Chen, S., Pan, Y., Li, X., Shi, L., Jung, C., Yuan, H., Alkhouri, I., Wu, Y., Ravishankar, S., Fessler, J. A., and Qu, Q. (2026). ForcingDAS: Unified and Robust Data Assimilation via Diffusion Forcing. Foundations of Deep Generative Models (FoGen) Workshop at International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2026 [Spotlight Paper].
Wu, Y. and Pan, Y. (2025). Induced Diffusion of Internal Gravity Waves: Directionality and Role in Ocean Mixing. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 1021, p. A48. https://doi.org/10.1017/ jfm.2025.10749
Tseng, Z.-E., Wu, Y., Menemenlis, D., Wang, G., Ruf, C., and Pan, Y. (2025). Distribution of Plastics of Various Sizes and Densities in the Global Ocean from a 3D Eulerian Model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130, e2025JC023272. https://doi.org/ 10.1029/2025JC023272
Wu, Y. and Pan, Y. (2023). Energy Cascade in the Garrett–Munk Spectrum of Internal Gravity Waves. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 975, p. A11. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2023.862
Wu, Y., Kunze, E., Tandon, A., and Mahadevan, A. (2023). Reabsorption of Lee-Wave Energy in Bottom-Intensified Currents. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 53(2) pp. 477-491. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-22-0058.1
Wu, Y., Llewellyn Smith, S., Rottman, J., Broutman, D., and Minster, J. (2020). Time-Dependent Propagation of Tsunami-Generated Acoustic–Gravity Waves in the Atmosphere. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 77(4) pp. 1233-1244. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS- D-18-0322.1
Wu, Y., Llewellyn Smith, S., Rottman, J., Broutman, D., and Minster, J. (2016). The Three-Dimensional Propagation of Tsunami-Generated Acoustic-Gravity Waves in the Atmosphere. International Symposium on Stratified Flows, 1(1). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2tp6j11k
Wu, Y., Llewellyn Smith, S., Rottman, J., Broutman, D., and Minster, J. (2016). The Propagation of Tsunami-Generated Acoustic–Gravity Waves in the Atmosphere. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 73(8) pp. 3025-3036. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-15-0255.1
Lead PI: Yue Wu, Co-PIs: Yulin Pan and Giovanni Dematteis. “Wave Kinetic Theory for Estimating Turbulent Dissipation: From Theory to Realistic and Evolving Spectra”, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences, OCE-2446007, August 2025–July 2028, $440,902
Lead PI: Yue Wu, Co-PIs: Amala Mahadevan, Eric Kunze, and Amit Tandon. “Collaborative Research—Lee Waves and Sheared Mean Flow: Interactions and Impacts of Topography”, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences, OCE-2306124, March 2022–February 2027, $909,810