Lei Zhao

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Affiliate, Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Associate Professor, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
Associate Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

Recent Publications

Caylor, K. K., Abatzoglou, J. T., Dalin, C., de Beurs, K. M., Diffenbaugh, N. S., Guan, D., Kopp, R. E., Le Cozannet, G., Mankin, J. S., Mishra, A. K., Mishra, V., Puma, M. J., Reed, P. M., Rulli, M. C., Sadegh, M., Seroussi, H., Trugman, A. T., Zhang, X., & Zhao, L. (2026). Earth's Future: Thematic Areas for a Growing Journal. Earth's Future, 14(3), Article e2026EF008498. https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EF008498

Caylor, K. K., Mankin, J., Rull, M. C., Guan, D., Abatzoglou, J., de Beurs, K., Le Cozannet, G., Dalin, C., Diffenbaugh, N. S., Kopp, R. E., Mishra, A., Mishra, V., Puma, M., Reed, P. M., Sadegh, M., Seroussi, H., Trugman, A., Zhang, X., & Zhao, L. (2026). Thank You to Our 2025 Peer Reviewers. Earth's Future, 14(4), Article e2026EF008660. https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EF008660

Cheng, Y., Zhao, L., Oleson, K., Chakraborty, T. C., Zhang, K., He, C., & Yang, J. (2026). Importance of Spatially Continuous Urban Surface Properties in Urban-Resolving Earth System Modeling. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 18(6), Article e2025MS005573. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025MS005573

Gray, L. C., Zhao, L., & Stillwell, A. S. (2026). Interactions between background climate, urban morphology, and rain garden cooling potential. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 6(3), Article 035005. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ae7fb4

Jia, M., Peng, B., Guan, K., Lawrence, D. M., DeLucia, E. H., Knapp, A. K., Barron-Gafford, G. A., Khanna, M., Lombardozzi, D. L., Sturchio, M. A., Kannenberg, S. A., Zhao, L., McCall, J., Tang, J., Bernacchi, C. J., Mwebaze, P., Majeed, F., Lee, D., & Time, A. (2026). Climate-driven divergence in biophysical and economic impacts of agrivoltaics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(10), Article e2514380123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2514380123

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