group members

Howdy! My name is Alan and I earned my bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Texas Tech University. I am currently a third-year Environmental Engineering Ph.D. student. My research focuses on modeling future climate and air quality at high spatio-temporal resolutions, with the goal of assessing potential inequalities at a community level. During my free time, I enjoy running and painting. In the future, I hope to become a professor and guide students towards becoming the best version of themselves!

I was born in the beautiful Fujian Province of China, where I grew up amidst lush landscapes and a rich cultural heritage. I obtained my B.E. degree in Environmental Engineering from the China Unversity of Petroleum in Beijing. My current research focuses on understanding long-range transport of dust and the effects of future climate change on dust and wildfire emissions. These topics are critical for predicting air quality trends and developing climate adaptation strategies. When I’m not immersed in research, you’ll likely find me playing table tennis—a sport I’m passionate about for its blend of precision, strategy, and excitement.

Heewon Yim has B.S. and M.S. degrees from Chung-Ang University and Yonsei University in South Korea. Currently she is studying the impacts of oxygenated organic compounds and volatile chemical products on air quality in Texas. She loves working out and watching movies in her spare time.

I am Minsu Choi, currently a postdoctoral associate at NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory. I completed my M.S. and Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Ying, focusing on source-region and age-resolved modeling using CMAQ. My research interests center on air pollution in East and Southeast Asia, with particular emphasis on long-range transport of ozone and secondary inorganic species. I am also deeply engaged in studying wildfire chemistry and its impacts on regional air quality, specifically examining brown carbon light absorption. In my current role, I investigate wildfire smoke impacts on Earth’s radiation budget using WRF-Chem and MPAS-A models, while also studying wildfire aerosol-meteorology interactions.

Dr. Jie Zhang holds his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2021, with expertise in air quality modeling and atmospheric chemistry. Jie’s professional journey has provided him a rich and diverse background in atmospheric science research, particularly in model development to investigate the physical and chemical processes underlying air pollution. Currently he works as a Scientific Engineering Associate at Division of Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts (EAEI). His work focuses on exploring the mitigation potentials of non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHGs) by integrating bottom-up and top-down modeling approaches to estimate emissions. Prior to LBNL, Jie worked as a Postdoc Research Associate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he conducted modeling studies on aerosol and aerosol-cloud interactions. His expertise in numerical modeling techniques has enabled him to address various facets of atmospheric dynamics, including particle nucleation and growth, source apportionment, and interactions with climate and human health.

Dr. Peng Wang currently work as an associated research scientist in Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Fudan University. Her current study is focused on studying the biogenic volatile organic compound emissions and their interactions with the atmospheric environment using chemical transport models. Dr. Wang obtained her Ph.D. from Texas A&M Univeristy in 2018 with disseration work on source apportionment of ozone and secondary organic aerosols. A complete list of her publications can be found on her ResearchGate page.

Dr. Jingyi Li received her B.S. in Environmental Science from Tianjin University in 2008 and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2010 and 2014, respectively. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University from 2014 to 2016. Since 2016, she has been a faculty member at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. Her research focuses on improving the mechanisms and physical-chemical properties of secondary air pollutants in chemical transport models and evaluating their environmental impacts under varying pollution conditions.

Dr. Sri Harsha Kota serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He was honored with the prestigious Young Engineer Award for 2021 by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE). With over fifteen years of research experience in air quality management, Dr. Kota holds Master’s and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering, with a specialization in air quality, from Texas A&M University, USA. His research interests encompass regional and urban air quality management, the development of air purifiers, the relationship between air pollution and human health, indoor air pollution, and the creation of emission inventories for air pollutants and greenhouse gases in India. Dr. Kota is actively engaged in collaborative research with scientists from India, the USA, the UK, the European Union, and China. He is currently involved in leading several nationally significant funded projects, amounting to 15 crores INR. These projects include revising the Indian national ambient air quality standards, developing clean air action plans for approximately 10% of non-attainment cities in India, forecasting air quality in Indian metropolitan areas, and assessing the impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases in India.

Dr. Hongliang Zhang is a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Fudan University. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Tsinghua University, and his Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University in 2012. Before joining Fudan University in 2019, he worked as a postdoc at the University of California, Davis for two years and as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at Louisiana State University for 5 years. His research interests include source apportionment of air pollutants with an emphasis on the size and composition of atmospheric particles and gas-to-particle conversion processes, a better understanding of the interactions between aerosols and climate, and the effects of climate change on future air quality. He has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications with 11000+ citations. He also serves as Associate Editor of Science of the Total Environment, Section Editor for Current Pollution Reports, and Editorial Member of the Journal of Environmental Sciences, Chemosphere, Frontiers of Environmental Science and Engineering, and Engineering.

Dr. Mingjie Kang holds her Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Beijing Normal University, with expertise in air quality modeling and atmospheric chemistry. She is currently a faculty member at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. Before joining NUIST, Mingjie worked as a Postdoc Research Associate at Fudan University, where she conducted modeling studies on ozone pollution. Mingjie was in Dr. Ying’s group as a visting scholar from 01/2020-03/2021 when her short vacation in US turned into a prolonged stay due to COVID-lockdown in China.

Dr. Kezheng Liao visited Prof. Ying’s group in 2019, obtained his PhD in chemistry from HKUST in 2023, and began to work as a research assistant professor in the Division of Environment and Sustainability of HKUST in 2024. His research is mainly about the development of statistical models for characterization and source apportionment of PM2.5 and its components. He has worked on several topics including organics, heavy metals, and brown carbon in PM2.5.

Dr. Xue Qiao visited Dr. Ying’s group as a visiting Ph.D. student from Sichun University in 2014 to study the source contributions to atmospheric deposition fluxes of nitrate, sulfate, and ammonium ions in China. Currently, Dr. Qiao is an associate professor at Sichuan University. She uses both atmospheric monitoring and modeling tools to investigate air pollution in southwestern china, particularly the Sichuan Basin and the eastern rim of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Her group investigates the status, long-term trends, sources, and future scenarios of sulfur and nitrogen deposition, ozone, particulate matter, and heavy metals. Additionally, her group explores airborne microbes and uses tree and lake cores to reconstruct climate and air pollution histories. Her group has long-term air pollution monitoring in several world natural heritage properties, where she has participated in several ecological conservation and restoration projects. She has written several environmental impact assessment reports, some of which were submitted to the IUCN and UNESCO WHC. Furthermore, she studies tufa/travertine formation and degradation from various perspectives, such as atmospheric CO2 flux, biogeochemistry, acid rain, soil erosion, and others.

Dr. Fengbin Sun visited Dr. Ying’s group as a visiting Ph.D. student from Beijing Forestry University from 2014 to 2015 to explore the impacts of vegetations on urban air quality.

Ali Sajjad studied in the group from 2009-2010. His master’s thesis is “Using a regional chemical transport model for the analysis of gaseous and particulate air pollutants in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area”.

Yuan Chen studied in the group from 2016-2017. Her master’s thesis is “Incremental reactivity of VOCs on ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation under high background pollutant conditions in China”.

Anupama Krishnan studied in the group from 2008-2010. Her master’s thesis is “Source contribution of VOCs to ozone formation in Texas using a source-oriented air quality model”

Li Wu studied in the group from 2014-2015. His master’s thesis is “Regional contributions to primary and secondary PM2.5 components in China”

Zhenglu (Michael) Wang studied in the group from 2017-2018. His thesis is “Design and field calibration of a low-cost PM monitor”

Zhenglu (Michael) Wang studied in the group from 2017-2018. His thesis is “Design and field calibration of a low-cost PM monitor”