Atmospheric sciences professor recognized for contributions in Asia-Oceania 

Yuqing Wang

Yuqing Wang, professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and researcher with the International Pacific Research Center in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), was elected as a Fellow by the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS). Fellows of the AOGS are selected in recognition of their sustained and distinguished contributions to geosciences in the Asia Oceania region and beyond. Wang will receive the award at the Annual General Meeting of AOGS later this summer in Japan. 

Wang is a world-leading tropical meteorologist whose pioneering research has profoundly advanced understanding of tropical cyclone dynamics, prediction, and climate impacts. His work has focused on two main areas of research: understanding the physics of extreme storms including hurricanes and typhoons and building computer models used to predict them and study climate change. 

Professor Wang’s landmark contributions include the discovery of dynamics in the development and breakdown of tropical cyclone eyewalls, the ring of destructive winds surrounding the calm eye of a storm. He has also made fundamental advances in understanding the controls of tropical storm structure and intensity. His theories and models have been widely used to interpret environmental influences on tropical cyclones, explain long-term variability, and improve physical understanding relevant to tropical cyclone intensity forecasting.

Further, Wang has made major contributions to numerical atmospheric modeling. Some of Wang’s models, which accurately simulated complex dynamics near the ocean surface and of clouds in the atmosphere, were so successful that they are incorporated into the community Weather Research and Forecasting model and widely adopted by the research and forecasting communities.  Beyond storm-scale research, his group has advanced regional and global climate modeling, cloud–radiation interaction studies, and creating accurate models to assess Pacific Island climates, producing influential assessments of the impacts of global warming on tropical cyclone activity in the western North Pacific.

Wang joined SOEST in 2000 as an associate researcher and is now a full professor. He has published over 300 publications during his 26 years of teaching and research at UH Mānoa.

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