INSTITUTE SPOTLIGHT: UH Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences - A Global Leader in Research and Teaching
The Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS) at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences was established in 2003. It leads research, education, and service activities in atmospheric and climate science at the University of Houston.
The institute engages in research of vital interest in the field of atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, and physics, including air quality, climate variability, and change. This includes measurement and modeling studies tackling complex challenges in climate and atmospheric science over a wide range of different temporal and spatial scales.
Modeling efforts address many critical components such as emissions, meteorology, and atmospheric chemistry, as well as climate change impacts on air pollution and physical processes, including atmospheric circulation, cloud formation, and precipitation. Measurement programs emphasize dynamical, physical, and chemical characterization of the atmosphere.
ICAS maintains strong international collaborations but also works closely with national, state, and local leaders to identify key scenarios to run on modeling systems so that public policy is guided with the best science.
ICAS faculty and students develop new scientific insights as well as applications addressing environmental changes, which are critical for human health, ecosystem health, and public welfare from the local to the global scale and help to shape the future of next generations.
Over the last few years, ICAS faculty members have maintained vigorous funding from state, federal, and foreign sponsoring agencies (FY2017-2022: ~$14M; to EAS: ~$10M) and have produced a strong peer-reviewed publication portfolio (FY2017-2022: 161 papers; 91 ICAS first-authored papers).
ICAS provides academic training through the M.S. and Ph.D. programs in atmospheric science established in 2007 and 2010, respectively. We also contribute to other EAS degree programs, such as required courses for the B.S. in environmental science and electives for other EAS B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. programs and other degree programs at UH.
The ICAS faculty offers two UH core classes, GEOL 1302 (Introduction to Climate Change) and GEOL 1350 (Introduction to Meteorology) every semester. Overall enrollment in both classes is >1,000 students and has one of the largest student enrollments in the University. We also highly anticipate the formation of a B.S. in atmospheric science in 2023.
ICAS faculty provide expertise in complex experimental and modeling techniques. Our faculty include two professors (Bernhard Rappenglueck, Xun Jiang), two associate professors (Yunsoo Choi, Yuxuan Wang), two assistant professors (Honghai Zhang, Youtong Zheng), one research associate professor (James Flynn), one research assistant professor (Shan Zhou), one research scientist (Subin Soon), and five postdocs (Fangzhou Guo, Xueying Liu, Arman Pouyai, Evelyn Martinez Sabari, Yong-Cheol Jeong). Currently, ICAS has one adjunct professor (Liming Li), affiliated with the UH Department of Physics.
In Spring 2023, ICAS faculty advised 38 Ph.D. students, and we expect those numbers to rise with our recently hired faculty (Honghai Zhang and Youtong Zheng), whom we heartily welcome and whom we wish best success for their future endeavors in broadening the ICAS portfolio in research and teaching.
For further information we invite you to visit the ICAS website.
ICAS faculty (from left to right): Liming Li, James Flynn, Xun Jiang, Yuxuan Wang, Bernhard Rappenglueck, Subin Yoon, Fangzhou Guo, Yunsoo Choi, and Honghai Zhang. In the back, left tower: North Moody Towers where ICAS has been operating routine air quality measurements since 2006. The facility has served multiple collaborative field studies, and its data has been used for numerous air quality modeling studies.
Not shown: Youtong Zheng (will be at UH in Fall 2023), Shan Zhou, Xueying Liu, Evelyn Martinez Sabari, and Yong-Cheol Jeong.