Yuzhong Zhang received his bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from Peking University in 2010 and his Ph.D. degree in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2016-2017 and Harvard University in 2017-2019. He joined Westlake University as a principle investigator in 2020.

The air we breathe everyday consists of, in addition to a bulk of nitrogen and oxygen, a multitude of trace gases and particles. Some of these trace constituents are emitted to the atmosphere from human activities and natural processes, while some others are produced in the atmosphere through a cascade of atmospheric chemical reactions. These constituents account for only a tiny fraction of air (from parts per million down to even parts per trillion), as compared to the bulk of nitrogen and oxygen, but they play critical roles in Earth’s energy balance, have huge impacts on the health of human, animals, and plants, and are closely associated with critical environmental issues that we are facing today, for example, air pollution, acid rain, ozone hole, and climate change.

Research in Yuzhong Zhang’s group thrives to improve our basic knowledge that can help us fight these pressing environmental issues. He and his group develop novel modeling and analysis tools to interpret big environmental data collected from multi-platforms (e.g., satellite, aircraft, surface networks), and reveal mechanisms that regulate the distributions of key atmospheric species at varied spatial-temporal scales. Research topics includes atmospheric chemistry-climate interaction, methane emissions and its budget, light absorbing brown carbon, regional ozone pollution, and atmospheric oxidation power. Dr. Yuzhong Zhang has so far published ~30 peer-reviewed papers on these topics including in top journals such as Science Advances, Nature Geoscience, and PNAS.

1. Ruosi Liang, Yuzhong Zhang, Wei Chen, Peixuan Zhang, Jingran Liu, Cuihong Chen, Huiqin Mao, Guofeng Shen, Zhen Qu, Zichong Chen, Minqiang Zhou, Pucai Wang, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Alba Lorente, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Ilse Aben. “East Asian methane emissions inferred from high-resolution inversions of GOSAT and TROPOMI observations: a comparative and evaluative analysis.” Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8039–8057 (2023).

2. Peixuan Zhang, Yuzhong Zhang, Ruosi Liang, Wei Chen, Xinchun Xie. “Evaluation of stratospheric contribution to the inter-annual variabilities of tropospheric methane growth rates”, Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2023GL103350 (2023).

3. Yuzhong Zhang, Shuangxi Fang, Jianmeng Chen, Yi Lin, Yuanyuan Chen, Ruosi Liang, Ke Jiang, Robert Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Martin Steinbacher, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Xiao Lu, Shaojie Song, Shushi Peng. “Observed Changes in China's Methane Emissions Linked to Policy Drivers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119, e2202742119 (2022).

4.Zhenqi Luo, Yuzhong Zhang, Wei Chen, Martin Van Damme, Pierre-François Coheur, and Lieven Clarisse. “Estimating global ammonia (NH₃) emissions based on IASI observations from 2008 to 2018.” Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10375–10388 (2022).

5. Yuzhong Zhang, Daniel J. Jacob, Xiao Lu, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Tia R. Scarpelli, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Jinfeng Chang, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, John Worden, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch. “Attribution of the accelerating increase in atmospheric methane during 2010–2018 by inverse analysis of GOSAT observations.” Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 3643–3666 (2021).

6. Yuzhong Zhang, Ritesh Gautam, Sudhanshu Pandey, Mark Omara, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Pankaj Sadavarte, David Lyon, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Daniel J. Varon, Ruixiong Zhang, Sander Houweling, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Ramon A. Alvarez, Alba Lorente, Steven P. Hamburg, Ilse Aben, and Daniel J. Jacob. “Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space.” Science Advances, 6 (2020).

7. Yuzhong Zhang, Ritesh Gautam, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruixiong Zhang, Lei Zhu, Jian-Xiong Sheng, and Tia Scarpelli. “Satellite-observed changes in Mexico s offshore gas flaring activity linked to oil/gas regulations.” Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 1879–1888 (2019).

8. Yuzhong Zhang, Daniel J. Jacob, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Ritesh Gautam, and John Worden. “Monitoring global OH concentrations using satellite observations of atmospheric methane.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 18, 15959–15973 (2018).

9. Yuzhong Zhang, Haviland Forrister, Jiumeng Liu, Jack E Dibb, Bruce Anderson, Joshua P Schwarz, Anne E Perring, Jose L Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Yuhang Wang, and others. “Top-of-atmosphere radiative forcing affected by brown carbon in the upper troposphere.” Nature Geoscience, 10, 486-489 (2017).

10. Yuzhong Zhang and Yuhang Wang. “Climate-driven ground-level ozone extreme in the fall over the Southeast United States.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113, 10025-10030 (2016).

Email: zhangyuzhong@westlake.edu.cn

We have several open positions for postdocs, graduate students and research assistants. Our lab is committed to training the next generation of scientists. We endeavor to provide an innovative, rigorous, and collegial research environment for our trainees, and offer continuous support for the career growth of young scientists.

Please visit https://atmosphere-westlake.com/join_us.html for more information.