Zhibo Zhang

Title

Professor
Associate Director of Academics, JCET, UMBC

Education

Ph.D.  2008  Texas A&M University, Atmospheric Sciences
M.S.   2004  Texas A&M University, Atmospheric Sciences
B.S.   2001   Nanjing University, Atmospheric Sciences

Research and Professional Experience

2021 – present   UMBC, Physics Dept. Professor
2019 – present   JCET, Associate Director of Academics
2016 – 2021       UMBC, Physics Dept. Associate Professor
2014 – 2019       UMBC, Physics Dept. Graduate Program Director, ATPH
2011 – 2016       UMBC, Physics Dept. Assistant Professor
2009 – 2011       UMBC, JCET, Assistant Research Scientist

Honors Received:
2022          Mid-Career Award by UMBC College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
2016          International Radiation Commission (IRC) Young Scientist Award
2014          NASA New (Early Career) Investigator Program Award
2007          AGU 2007 Fall Meeting Outstanding Student Paper Award
2005          Geosciences Graduate Excellence Scholarship, TAMU

Professional Interests

The Aerosol, Cloud, Radiation-Observation and Simulation (ACROS) group is led by Dr. Zhibo Zhang at the Physics Department of UMBC. Our research focuses on observing, understanding and describing the interactions between aerosol, cloud and radiation, and studying the implications of their interactions for global warming, climate change, air quality and weather. Our research is supported by grants and funding from NASA, the Department of Energy (DOE), NSF, and Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) of UMBC.

Aerosol and cloud are major modulators of Earth’s radiative energy budget. One branch of our research is to use observations from remote sensing techniques (e.g., NASA’s A-Train and DOE’s ARM) to better understand the microphysical and optical properties of aerosols and clouds, and thereby quantify their roles in Earth’s radiative energy budget.

Aerosol particles, clouds and radiation can interact with each other in a variety of fascinating ways. A recent research direction of our group is to understand how seasonal smoke aerosols originating from the bio-massing burning activities in African interact with the low-level Marine Boundary Layer clouds and radiation in the Southeast Atlantic region.

We rely on global and regional climate models to analyze the current and predict the future climate. Aerosols and clouds are still not adequately represented in the current climate models, resulting significant uncertainties in our projection of future climate change due to global warming. Another objective of our research is to use aerosol and cloud observations from satellite and ground based remote sensing techniques to evaluate and improve aerosol and cloud simulations in climate models.

We are always looking for excellent postdoctoral scholars and students of all levels to join my group. Please see this link for openings and opportunities in our group.

Publications

Link to my research webpage: https://acros.umbc.edu/
Link to Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8zPwcVEAAAAJ&hl=en
Link to my publications: https://acros.umbc.edu/publications/