I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor leading the Water, Agriculture, and Conservation Innovation (WACI) Lab at Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). My core research interests center around unraveling the complexities of water, nutrient, and carbon cycles within diverse agricultural landscapes and their interconnectedness with downstream water quality. To tackle these challenges, my research leverages various tools and methods, including field measurement, computational and process-based modeling (hydrological, cropping system, ecosystem and earth system modeling), remote sensing, geospatial big data, model-data integration, and artificial intelligence.
I am deeply motivated to drive transdisciplinary, convergence, and use-inspired research for breaking new ground in sustaining agricultural production and environmental quality. I am passionate about developing innovative technologies and systems solutions in digital agriculture and precision conservation to foster sustainable agri-food systems and preserve healthy watersheds amidst the pressures of land use intensification and climate change. The driving force behind my research pursuits lies in addressing critical societal issues, including ensuring water, food and energy security, enhancing water quality and environmental sustainability, and nurturing rural economies and human well-being both in the United States and across the globe.
I am recruiting multiple self-motivated and enthusiastic postdoctoral researchers and graduate students on surface and subsurface hydrology, water quality, environmental systems modeling, and environmental data science. Please refer to the recruiting flyer for more details.
Ph.D. in Hydrology & Geoinformatics, 2016
Chinese Academy of Sciences
B.S. in Geography, 2011
Nanjing University
† Equally contributed, * Corresponding author.
Editorship
Grant Review Panelist
Service to Disciplinary and Professional Societies or Associations
Conference Session Organizer
Journal Peer Reviewer (>100 manuscripts for over 35 domain leading journals. Publons Top Reviewers for Geoscience awardee)
Professional Membership
Class Teaching
Student Mentoring
The Water, Agriculture, and Conservation Innovation Lab (WACI Lab) led by Dr. Bin Peng at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is recruiting multiple postdoctoral researchers and graduate students on watershed hydrology and water quality. We are looking for highly motivated and enthusiastic members who are interested in unraveling the complexities of water, nutrient, and carbon cycles within diverse agricultural landscapes and their interconnectedness with downstream water quality. Please refer to the recruiting flyer for more details.
Area 1: Watershed hydrology and water quality modeling. This position is to build next-generation hydrological and water quality models and use the systems modeling to advance our understanding of the complex two-way scaling from field-scale farming management to watershed-scale water quality. Candidates with strong background in agroecosystem modeling, biogeochemical modeling, coupled surface-subsurface hydrological modeling, watershed hydrological modeling, reactive transport modeling, river hydraulic modeling are particularly encouraged to apply.
Area 2: Environmental data science for hydrology and water quality. This position is to develop high-resolution environmental (such as field-scale soil moisture and inundation) and management (such as conservation practices) data layers with advanced remote sensing and geospatial big data analytics and to further build data-driven models linking environmental and management drivers with watershed-scale hydrological and water quality variables. Candidates with strong skills in quantitative remote sensing (optical, thermal, and microwave), machine learning, deep learning, geospatial analytics are particularly encouraged to apply. Experiences in handling large-scale datasets are highly preferred.
Area 3: Hydrological and water quality monitoring, sensing, and data analytics. This position is to discover knowledge with high-frequency hydrological and water quality monitoring data from IoT sensor networks and to reveal spatial patterns of water quality variables through integrated sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and satellites. Candidates with strong interests and experiences in using high-frequency sensor data to investigate mechanisms and controls of nutrient export patterns and pathways from field to watershed scales or with experiences with water quality remote sensing are encouraged to apply for this position. Experiences in water quality sensor development, calibration, deployment, maintenance, data analytics and/or remote sensing are highly preferred.
Area 4: Agricultural water footprint. This position is to improve the quantification of green, blue and gray water footprints of agricultural production with improved process-based modeling and remote sensing capacities at regional to global scales. Candidates with strong interests and skills in improving crop growth models and soil biogeochemistry models in earth system models and using large-scale remote sensing products to estimate agricultural water use are encouraged to apply.