Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Fudan University
Email: yu_cheng@fudan.edu.cn
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Research Interests
- Boundary-layer meteorology and turbulence
- Land–atmosphere interactions and climate extremes
- Machine learning and generative AI for Earth system modeling
- Climate adaptation and geoengineering
About
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Fudan University.
I received my Ph.D. from Columbia University (advisor: Pierre Gentine) and later conducted research at Harvard University.
My research has focused on advancing turbulence theory and modeling, investigating climate responses to man-made land surface heterogeneities, and identifying the key land–atmosphere processes controlling extreme events. By integrating theory, numerical simulations (DNS, LES, cloud-resolving models), field experiments, and machine learning (DNNs and generative AI), my goal is to provide more accurate predictions of extreme weather, air quality, and the impact of human activity on climate, and to strengthen resilience to extremes and promote sustainable land–climate management.
A central contribution of my work is showing that buoyancy does not necessarily destroy the logarithmic structure of wall turbulence, but instead modifies its slope. This finding extends the classical von Kármán log law to temperature under unstable stratification (Cheng et al. 2021) and velocity under stable stratification (Cheng et al. 2023), offering a new framework for buoyancy-affected wall turbulence.
My work has been recognized as an Editors’ Suggestion in Physical Review Fluids (Cheng et al. 2023), selected three times as a Research Spotlight in AGU’s EOS (Cheng et al. 2017; Cheng et al. 2024; Cheng et al. 2026), and featured in The Guardian.