CV

Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Chang Liao.

Contact Information

Name Chang Liao
Professional Title Earth Scientist
Email changliao.climate@gmail.com
Location Institute of Atmospheric Physics, CAS, Beijing,

Professional Summary

Earth Scientist specializing in three-dimensional kilometer-scale land surface modeling, mesh-independent river networks, and high-performance computing at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Experience

  • 2026 - Present

    Beijing, China

    Earth Scientist
    Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Leading the development and application of three-dimensional kilometer-scale land surface models.
    • Unstructured Voronoi mesh frameworks for large-scale hydrologic and land surface modeling.
    • Multi-scale land-river-ocean coupled modeling and high-resolution Earth system simulations.
  • 2020 - 2026

    Richland, WA, USA

    Earth Scientist
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
    Earth Scientist contributing to DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) and related hydroclimate projects.
    • Adoption of MPAS meshes in DOE E3SM land (ELM) and river (MOSART) components.
    • Development of multi-hillslope-based land surface model in NASA ABoVE Terrestrial Ecology project.
    • MPAS mesh-based flow routing model in DOE Integrated Coastal Modeling (ICoM) project.
    • Unified mesh-based flow routing modeling in DOE InteRFACE project.
    • Hillslope-based subsurface lateral groundwater flow model (H2SC) in NGEE-Tropics.
  • 2017 - 2020

    Richland, WA, USA

    Postdoctoral Research Associate
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
    Postdoctoral research on high-resolution hydrologic modeling.
    • Hillslope-based lateral groundwater flow model (H2SC) in E3SM / NGEE-Tropics.
    • Developed HexWatershed: a mesh-independent flow direction and watershed delineation model.
    • Integrated surface water and groundwater transport simulations.
  • 2012 - 2017

    West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Graduate Research Assistant
    Purdue University
    • Developed 3D water and carbon cycle terrestrial ecosystem model (ECO3D).
    • Integrated surface water and groundwater modeling (MODFLOW-USG / PRMS) in Arctic watersheds.
    • Quantified global plant production and drought impacts using process-based models.

Education

  • 2012 - 2017

    West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Ph.D.
    Purdue University
    Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
    • Advisor: Prof. Qianlai Zhuang
    • Research on 3D hydrology and biogeochemistry in cold-region ecosystems.
  • 2009 - 2011

    Wuhan / Beijing, China

    M.S.
    Wuhan University / IGSNRR CAS
    Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Engineering
    • School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University
    • Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS
  • 2005 - 2009

    Wuhan, China

    B.S.
    Wuhan University
    Remote Sensing and Information Engineering

Skills

Scientific Computing & Modeling (Expert): Earth System Modeling (E3SM, ELM, MOSART), Hydrologic Modeling, Unstructured Mesh (MPAS, Voronoi, Hexagon), Ecosystem Modeling (ECO3D)
High-Performance Computing (HPC) & Programming (Expert): C/C++, Fortran, Python, MPI, OpenMP, Git, Bash, Conda
Geospatial & Data Analysis (Expert): GIS, GDAL/OGR, Remote Sensing, NetCDF, GeoTIFF, VTK, IDL
Model Calibration & Uncertainty Analysis (Advanced): PEST, Bayesian Inference, Polynomial Chaos Expansion, SCE-UA

Service