Zhen Wu

I’m currently an assistant professor in the College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Peking University (PKU). Before coming back to PKU, I was a research scientist in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, advised by Prof. Mick Follows. I completed my PhD in Environmental Sciences at Peking University, advised by Prof. Yong Liu.

I take a modeling approach to understand the interactions between the global cycles of climatically important elements and microbial activities in aquatic ecosystems (both ocean and lakes). More specifically, I am interested in how to understand and represent the role of unresolved features in current biogeochemistry and earth system models (e.g., diel cycle, (sub)mesoscale physics, diversity of phenotypes, flexible elemental composition of microorganisms, and elemental cycles within lakes) and evaluate their sensitivity and potential feedback to changes in climate.