Yi Zhang 张祎

I am an Assistant Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. I am affiliated with the Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science within Courant. I was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 2021 to 2023, hosted by William Boos. I earned my PhD from Princeton University in 2021, advised by Stephan Fueglistaler.

Full of uncertainty and disorder, the Earth’s climate system is a unique subject in complex systems science. Reducing complex phenomena to simple laws is fascinating to me as a scientist.

Climate science also serves a more practical mission – to better prepare societies worldwide for the impact of climate change. Accurately predicting future changes in climate and extreme weather requires a fundamental understanding of underlying physical mechanisms. I am interested in atmospheric dynamics and the interaction between dynamics, thermodynamics, and radiative transfer.

I particularly appreciate the insights that analytical theories provide, whether they are predictive or diagnostic. Achieving quantitative agreement with simple theories can be challenging in our complex climate system, but I strive to incorporate analytical components in each piece of my research.