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Kai Zhu

Kai Zhu
Associate Professor
Geospatial Data Sciences
Climate + Energy
Conservation + Restoration
Cities + Mobility + Built Environment
Cross-cutting
zhukai@umich.edu
CV
Office
3508 Dana
Lab website
Zhu Lab
Websites
Institute for Global Change Biology

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About

Dr. Zhu’s research interests revolve around global change biology, ecological modeling, and environmental data science. He brings together his expertise in ecology, statistics, and computer science to advance the understanding of how plants and soil respond to environmental changes. His research spans a wide range of scales, from local experiments to global analyses. Dr. Zhu has been recognized for his contributions to the field, having received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, been elected as an Ecological Society of America Early Career Fellow, and won the New Phytologist Tansley Medal.

Publications

Google Scholars page
Research

Ecological acclimation of climate-vegetation dynamics, plant phenology coupling with climate and its implications for public health, and nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity challenges.

Education

Postdoc, Stanford University (global ecology)

PhD, Duke University (environment)

MS, Duke University (statistical science)

In the News
Future of Big Data
May 22, 2023

Meet the Future: Big Data and Sustainability Solutions

Thanks to the digital revolution, a burgeoning amount of big data is available in real-time on a mass scale. Big data offers scientists unparalleled access to vast amounts of raw information that can be harvested, analyzed and translated into new solutions to the world’s most challenging problems—including sustainability and climate change. We spoke to four SEAS professors about how they are using big data to reimagine sustainability solutions to agriculture, landscape conservation, biological systems and cities.

In the Media