Dr. Ping Liu
In December, Dr. Ping Liu, a scientific computer programmer, joined the SoMAS faculty as a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary and Atmospheres (ITPA). Dr. Liu comes to SoMAS from the International Pacific Research Center of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii. One of his primary roles at SoMAS will be to facilitate the use of high performance computing–particularly the Blue Gene computer at Brookhaven National Laboratory–for SoMAS researchers conducting a variety of projects in atmospheric sciences and oceanography.
“We are extremely happy that Ping is joining the SoMAS faculty,” said Dr. Minghua Zhang, Associate Dean of SoMAS and Director of ITPA. “He brings in an unique set of expertise in numerical modeling, super-computing, and meteorology. This is exactly what we need to enhance our research and educational programs.”
Dr. Liu received his PhD in Climate Dynamics from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Beijing, where his dissertation focused on the interannual variability of subtropical high belt and subtropical anticyclone over the western Pacific and their connections with tropical sea surface temperature anomalies. At SoMAS, he will initially be working with Dr. Minghua Zhang’s group on improving climate models so they can better tell us the consequences of climate change on a regional–or even local– scale.
“Right now the climate change models focus on large-scale phenomenon and have only coarse resolution,” said Dr. Liu. “We’d like to refine the model so that we can better understand the relationship between global change and regional change.”
“A regional model would help us get a more accurate assessment of the frequency of storm and flooding events,” explained Dr. Liu. “As well as get a more detailed picture of how regional river flow and land surface processes such as erosion will be influenced by climate.”
Dr. Liu will also be working to improve global climate models so that they better represent small-scale processes. “Global models underestimate the actual signal produced by convective heating during moist processes,” he said.
Other research interests of Dr. Liu include change of Madden-Julian oscillation with global warming; climate model resolution and its ability to simulate monsoon climate and variability; air-sea Interaction over Warm Pool and monsoon variability and predictability; dynamics of subtropical anticyclone from weather to climate scale; and historical and future trends of arid and semiarid climate.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Liu has joined our faculty and will be assisting our modelers with their computing needs,” said SoMAS Dean David Conover. “He will be a tremendous resource for those in SoMAS who use or want to begin to use high performance computing and the UNIX or Linux operating systems.”
Dr. Liu will be teaching a course in scientific computing, which aims to give students familiarity with UNIX, popular illustration software, and applications frequently used in climate and marine sciences.
“In the short period since he joined SoMAS, Ping has already made large contributions to shoring up the weather labs in a way that we had hoped to do for a long time,” said Dr. Zhang. “I look forward to many years of his productive service to SoMAS and the university.”
