Hi, my name is Gang Zhao [赵罡]

I’m a research scientist in IGSNRR (CAS), remote sensing specialist, hydrologist, and life explorer and learner~

My research touches on interdisciplinary water science including surface water monitoring, climate change, drought and water scarcity, global scale ecology, water quality, and deep learning.

Gang Zhao is a Research Professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a doctoral supervisor, and Deputy Director of the National Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology. He was selected for the CAS youth talent program with merit-based support and listed among the world’s top 2% scientists (Stanford University ranking). He leads projects funded by the Southwest China Comprehensive Scientific Expedition program, the CAS talent program, the NSFC General Program, and sub-projects of the Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition.

He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2018 and completed postdoctoral training at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford. Centering on a changing environment, his research carries out systematic remote sensing observation and numerical modeling of the “water balance – energy balance – water quality” of terrestrial water bodies. As a key member he developed the algorithms for NASA’s official reservoir data products, and his research has been cited by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, among others. He has published 20+ SCI papers as first/corresponding author in Nature Water, PNAS, Nature Communications, Geophysical Research Letters, and Remote Sensing of Environment. He serves as Associate Editor of npj Hydrosphere, and has received honors including the 2025 Top Ten Advances in Ecological Environment Science and Technology of China (rank 2), the Top Ten Research Advances in Chinese Geographical Science (rank 6), and the First Prize of Outstanding Achievements of the China Committee on Remote Sensing (rank 2).

Based in the National Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, the group is recruiting Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers. Interested candidates are welcome to send a CV and a summary of research achievements to gzhao@igsnrr.ac.cn.

News

Jan 2025: First-authored paper about “Decoupling of surface water storage from precipitation in global drylands” has been published by Nature Water

Oct 2024: Co-authored paper about “Water quality–fisheries tradeoffs” has been published by PNAS.

May 2024: Co-authored paper about “Multivariate extremes in lakes” has been published by Nature Communications.

April 2024: Co-authored paper about “Decarbonisation potential of floating solar photovoltaics on lakes worldwide” has been published by Nature Water.

Oct 2023: Co-authored paper about “Geographic redistribution of microcystin hotspots in response to climate warming” has been published by Nature Water.

Aug 2023: First-author paper about “Climate regulating river nitrogen” has been published by PNAS.

June 2023: Co-authored paper about “Reservoir storage remote sensing” has been published by Nature Communications.

Officially joined IGSNRR in Nov, 2022! Look foward to the new path ahead!