Group Members

Prof. Lifeng Luo

Dr. Lifeng Luo is a faculty member of the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. He received his B.Sc. from Peking University in 1998, and Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University in 2003. He worked as a post-doc and then research scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. He joined MSU as a tenure track faculty in August, 2009, and is currently serving as the Director of the Environmental Sciences and Policy Program.

Dr. Luo's research covers a range of topics related to land-atmosphere interaction and its impact on the global climate and hydrological cycle at various spatial and temporal scales. His research involves the use of statistical and dynamical approaches to downscale large scale atmospheric fields for hydrological applications. His recent research focuses on the predictability and prediction of climate extremes such as drought, floods, heat waves at subseasonal to seasonal scale. His current research activities are supported by NSF, NOAA, NASA and USDA.

Dr. Luo has authored and coauthored over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, and some of them have been highlighted in Nature and Nature Reports Climate Change. He has reviewed more than 100 manuscripts for numerous scientific journals, and has served on several review panels for funding agencies. He serves as the Editor of Journal of Hydrometeorology.

Graduate Students

Xin Lan

Xin started his PhD program at MSU in 2020 during the pandemic. He earned his Master's degree in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University. There, he cultivated a multifaceted research interest in water resources management by melding environmental science, specifically hydrology, with policy. Currently, he's delving into research on the historical trends of water coverage and temperature fluctuations in the U.S., utilizing tools like Google Earth Engine, remote sensing techniques, and statistical models. Xin is also in the Environmental Science and Policy dual major doctoral program.

Researchers

Dr. Coumba Niang

Dr. Coumba Niang is a visiting scholar from Senegal as part of the Alliance for African Partnership: African Futures Research Leadership Program. Before coming to MSU, she was working in the Laboratoire de Physique de l’Atmosphère et de l’Océan Siméon Fongang (LPAOSF) in University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar (Senegal). Her work mainly focuses on the study of the intraseasonal variability of West African Monsoon (WAM) features and its large-scale drivers; and also evaluate the skill of dynamical seasonal forecast models for the monsoon features and its variability. She also performed study in evaluating the Lagrangian analysis of West African monsoon features using mathematical tools. That work was the first one using the Lagrangian descriptor to analyse the essential elements of the WAM system, for which typically transport has been described based on an eulerian perspective. In her research work She is also interested in studying the modulation of the large-scale conditions on the potential predictability of extreme precipitation events, an issue with important operational applications. In addition to research, Coumba also has taught thermodynamics, heat transfer at undergraduate level and also Data analysis in meteorology for master students.

Former Members

  • Dr. Pouyan Hatami (Ph.D., 2022), Environmental Law and Policy Center
  • Dr. Lisi Pei (Researcher, 2018-2021), Climate Prediction Center, NOAA
  • Dr. Xia Li (Visiting scholar, 2018-2019), China Meteorology Administration
  • Yunyun Li (Visiting Ph.D. 2017-2018), Xi'An University of Technology
  • Huating Xu (Visiting Ph.D. 2016-2017), Hohai University
  • Sam Arcand (M.S., 2018), Wisconsin DNR
  • Deanna Apps (M.S, 2016), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • Dr. Steven Schultze (Ph.D. 2015), University of South Alabama
  • Dr. Ying Tang (Ph.D. 2015), Michigan State University
  • Dr. Yang Lang (Visiting Ph.D. 2013-2014), Yunnan University, China
  • Dr. Xiaolei Fu (Visiting Ph.D. 2013-2014), Fuzhou University, China
  • Dr. Xiaona Zhang (Visiting scholar, 2013-2014), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China
  • Dr. Wei Tang (Visiting Ph.D. 2012), China Meteorology Administration

Collaborators

  • Prof. Eric F. Wood (Princeton University)
  • Prof. Pang-Ning Tan (Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Yadu Pokhrel (Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Ben Livneh (University of Colorado)
  • Dr. Liz Payton (University of Colorado)
  • Prof. Qiuhong Tang (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Dr. Ming Pan (UC San Diego)
  • Dr. Justin Sheffield (University of Southampton, UK)
  • Dr. Youlong Xia (NOAA/EMC)
  • Prof. Sharon Zhong (Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Julie Winkler (Michigan State University)
  • Dr. Warren Heilman (USDA Forest Service)
  • Dr. Joseph J. Charney (USDA Forest Service)
  • Dr. Xindi Bian (USDA Forest Service)
  • Prof. David Hyndman (Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Zhaohui Lin (IAP/CAS)
  • Prof. Qingyun Duan (Hohai University)
  • Prof. Paolo Sabbatini (Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Jianguo (Jack) Liu (Michigan State University)
  • Dr. Thomas Huntington (USGS)
  • Prof. Huan Wu (Sun Yat-sen University)
  • Dr. David Mocko (NASA)
  • Dr. Feng Ma (Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology)
  • Prof. Jianxia Chang (Xi'An University of Technology)
  • Dr. Zengchao Hao (Beijing Normal University)