Xubin Zeng honored as 2018 Outstanding Alum

Department Head Jeff Collett presented Xubin Zeng with the 2018 Outstanding Alum Award in a ceremony Dec. 7. Zeng then gave a talk on interface processes in the Earth system. His wife Qingqiu, also an ATS alum, was in attendance.

In a note for the department newsletter, Zeng said, “I am honored by this recognition from ATS – a top program in our field with many distinguished alumni throughout the years. I thank the ATS faculty for inspiring me and raising me up to stand on their shoulders.”

Zeng is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, where he holds the Agnese N. Haury Endowed Chair in the Environment and serves as director of the UA Climate Dynamics and Hydrometeorology Center. Zeng co-founded the University of Arizona’s Hydrometeorology M.S. and Ph.D. program, the first such program in the U.S.

Through over 170 peer-reviewed papers, Zeng is well known for his research on land-atmosphere-ocean interface processes, weather and climate modeling, hydrometeorology, remote sensing, and nonlinear dynamics. His research products – including computer models, algorithms and value-added global datasets – have been used by major national and international research centers and numerous groups worldwide. Zeng’s work on chaos has advanced our understanding of this important field and is widely referenced even outside of atmospheric science.

Zeng is deputy PI of a newly selected $30 million NASA project on the understanding of aerosol-cloud-weather interactions through measurements using two aircraft in formation over the western North Atlantic. Among other recognitions, Zeng is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and recipient of a 2014 Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation.

Zeng received his Ph.D. from the department in 1992, advised by Roger Pielke. The title of his dissertation was “Chaos Theory and Its Application in the Atmosphere.”