Biography

Trained as a meteorologist and climatologist in China, I received my PhD degree in Climate and Earth System Sciences from McGill University in Canada. Since then, I have been a postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Climatic Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Most recently, I worked for USA Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program as a Tropical Western Pacific Sites Team Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Role

I am a lecturer in climate change. I have been engaged in climate and Earth system sciences since 1993. I had my PhD from McGill University (Montreal, Canada, a lovely bilingual city). With my previous experiences in the field of Earth system sciences and global biogeochemical cycles, I will assist the establishment of the Sussex Climate Change Initiative to move in the right direction and on the express lane.

I am looking for talented postgraduate students to join me on my current research projects. There are many ways to secure a funding for a three-year D.Phil program in UK. For example, NERC Studentship is available for all UK and EU students (http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/postgrad/). Commonwealth Scholarships is also a good opportunity to apply for your D.Phil. program in UK (http://www.postgraduatestudentships.co.uk/node/695).

My research interests have covered a wide range of topics related to understand climate and Earth system sciences and their impacts on human society. For example, one of my interests is to understand how global carbon has been cycled through different components in the Earth system (e.g., land, ocean and atmosphere). I am very keen to underpin the long-term effects of climate changes on human society, which could be ranged from dynasty transitions to basic food securities. In particular, I have tried to use high-resolution (a few kilometer in the space) model to zoom in high-level clouds and deep convective systems in the atmosphere. This research helps us to reduce the uncertainties associated with cloud-aerosol interactions and cloud-radiation feedbacks, which are keys to IPCC policy makers.

Community and Business

I am a member of peer-review college for Natural Environmental Research Council. I am also a member of peer-review college for Romanian National Council for Scientific Research. I am a member of peer-review experts for the Seventh Research Framework Programme of EC. I was a member of panelists for US National Science Foundation.

I am a member of Editorial Board for Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences published by Springer.

I am a panel member of the International CLIVAR/PAGES Working Group, which is part of the World Climate Research Programme.

At Department of Geography. I help the admission procedures of postgraduate research students at Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy levels.

My personal research interests cover a wide range of topics under the BIG envelope of climate change and Earth system sciences.

I have been involved in the modelling development (vegetation and carbon cycle dynamics) of an Earth system model of intermediate complexity------the "Green" McGill Paleoclimate Model (MPM), which has been used to help understand climate changes from last glacial inception to Holocene. In particular, in a recent experiment, we found the first-order impact of Northern Peatland on the global carbon cycle dynamics in the Holocene (see Wang et al., Climate of the Past, 2009).

I have been involved in the first long-term (6500-year) fully coupled climate model (Fast-Ocean-Atmosphere-Model) study for the Holocene (aimed to understand ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGES), which has been highlighted by top-ranking journals, such as NATURE, SCIENCE, NATURE GEOSCIENCES. The successful modelling of abrupt ecosystem collapses in mid-Holocene North Africa is encouraging a further study of the mechanisms of these abrupt changes in the past and mostly likely in the future (see Wang et al., Climate of the Past, 2008).

I have been analysing the decadal surface radioation measurement and retrievals from the USA Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiaiton Measurement (ARM) program over Manus Island (Papua New Guinea). I used statistical tools of wavelet, cross wavelet and coherence , and Fourier power spectrum analyses to extract the well-known Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) from ARM observations and compared with satellite retrievals (NOAA Outgoing Longwave Radiation and NASA GPCP precipitation). See details in my Climate Dynamics paper (see Wang et al., 2011).

I have initiated an integrated systematic evaluation of cloud microphysics schemes in one of the most advanced regional climate model developed at NCAR with other partners in USA (see Wang et al., JGR, 2009). Future generations of global climate models will most likely be run at very high-resolution (a few kilometres) so that the convective parameterization will not be crucial. Under such "cloud-permitting" scales, different cloud microphysics will play significant roles to guide the performance of the next generation of global climate models. This cutting-edge research was highlighted at PNNL Inside News (Dec. 21, 2009), Division of Atmospheric Sciences and Global Changes Research Highlights, and was listed among FOUR most significant research achievements in 2009 USA DOE ARM Annual report.

I have strongly involved in understanding the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) through my co-investigation in USA Department of Energy funded proposals, namely, ARM MJO Investigation Experiments, which are parts of international ongoing efforts called CINDY2011 and DYNAMO.

I am course convenors for undergraduate geography courses and MSc programme of Climate change and Policy, and Climate Change and Development, such as China Field Class and Advances in Climate Sciences (undergraduate levels); and Challenges in Climate Prediction (PGT level).

I also actively engaged in other courses, such as Study Skills (undergraduate level), and The Science of Climate Change (PGT level).

Student Consultation

Spring term 2012-13:

Thursday 1200-1300pm

Friday 1400-1500pm

Lu, Huaya, Yi, Shuangwen, Liu, Zhengyu, Mason, Joseph A, Jiang, Dabang, Cheng, Jun, Stevens, Thomas, Xu, Zhiwei, Zhang, Enlou, Jin, Liya, Zhang, Zhaohui, Guo, Zhengtang, Wang, Yi and Otto-Bliesner, Bette (2013) Variation of East Asian monsoon precipitation during the past 21 k.y. and potential CO2 forcing. Geology. ISSN 0091-7613

Xie, Xiaoning, Liu, Xiaodong, Peng, Yiran, Wang, Yi, Yue, Zhiguo and Li, Xinzhou (2013) Numerical simulation of clouds and precipitation depending on different relationships between aerosol and cloud droplet spectral dispersion. Tellus B, 65 (19054). pp. 1-17. ISSN 1600-0889

Lui, Xiaodong and Wang, Yi (2011) Contrasting impacts of spring thermal conditions over Tibetan Plateau on late-spring to early-summer precipitation in Southeast China. Atmospheric Science Letters, 12 (3). pp. 309-315. ISSN 1530-261X

Wang, Yi, Long, Charles N, Mather, James H and Liu, Xiaodong (2011) Convective signals from surface measurements at ARM Tropical Western Pacific site: Manus. Climate Dynamics, 36 (3-4). pp. 431-449. ISSN 0930-7575

Wang, Yi, Long, C N, Leung, L R, Dudhia, J, McFarlane, S A, Mather, J H, Ghan, S J and Liu, X (2009) Evaluating regional cloud-permitting simulations of the WRF model for the Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE), Darwin, 2006. Journal of Geophysical Research, 114 (D21). D21203. ISSN 0747-7309

Wang, Y, Notaro, M, Liu, Z, Gallimore, R, Levis, S and Kutzbach, J E (2008) Detecting vegetation-precipitation feedbacks in mid-Holocene North Africa from two climate models. Climate of the Past, 4 (1). pp. 59-67. ISSN 1814-9324