Founding Director; Levenick Professor of Sustainability, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; CHIEF SCIENTIST, NASA ACRES PROGRAM

Research Focus: Agroecosystem Modeling, Cross-scale Remote Sensing (ground/airborne/satellite), Model-Data Fusion, Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, Biogeochemistry, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Agroecosystem Forecasting, Artificial Intelligence, Science-to-Policy, Science-to-Practical Solutions.

Biography: I am a Levenick Endowed Professor in agroecosystem sensing and modeling at UIUC, a Blue-Waters Professor in Supercomputing at UIUC-NCSA, a University Scholar of the University of Illinois System, the Founding Director of Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) at UIUC, and also the Chief Scientist of the NASA Acres Consortium - representing NASA's flagship program in advancing US agriculture research. My major affiliations at UIUC are with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), Siebel School of Computing and Data Sciences (CS), College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), and National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). My research group uses advanced process models, satellite sensing technology, fieldwork, and artificial intelligence to address how climate and human practices affect crop productivity, water resource, ecosystem functioning, and environmental sustainability. We have keen interests in applying our knowledge and skills in solving real-life problems, such as large-scale crop monitoring and forecasting, quantification of environmental impacts of farming/grazing (e.g. greenhouse gas emission), agricultural policy design, water management and sustainability, and global food security.

Mission Statement: We aim to bring domain knowledge (i.e. Earth system science, hydrology, plant physiology, biogeochemistry, ecology, agricultural science), satellite data, supercomputing, and AI/ML together to revolutionize the agricultural research, such that we can observe every crop field in real-time, monitor crop growth condition, water demands, and nutrient needs, forecast crop yield, risks and environmental impacts (e.g. greenhouse gas emission, soil carbon change), and provide farmers our solutions to best manage their fields as well as policy-makers improved agricultural policy design, across the U.S. and Worldwide. We strive to achieve co-sustainability of environment quality and food security.

For Prospective Students: I recruit PhDs and Masters students from the following programs@UIUC:
PhDs: NRES, PEEC, Informatics
Masters&PhDs: Computer Science
Recruitment: We are recruiting Research Scientists, Postdocs, & PhD Students on Ecosystem Modeling and Remote Sensing. See details at our website.