About me
Taipei, Taiwan, and the Typhoon Talim, 2017
"cloud hole" @ Ann Arbor, MI, 11/14/2016
Kayaking @ Gallup park, Ann Arbor, MI.
I was born and grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan experiences many different weather phenomena over the course of a year. In winter, frontal systems bring rain, cold air, and air pollutants mainly from China; in summer, typhoons and thunderstorms are very common. I still remember a big afternoon thunderstorm pouring down around two inches of rain in an hour and after that, a big, clear rainbow hung on the sky. These various weather phenomena piqued my interest in the atmosphere and I decided to pursue my bachelor’s degree in atmospheric sciences. Following graduation, I got my master’s in the same field and then I worked as a research assistant in the Taiwan Earth System Model (TaiESM) project for two years. After that, I got my PhD in climate sciences at the University of Michigan.
Among various weather phenomena, I am particularly fascinated by clouds. When I was a weather observer in college, I looked up at the sky and tried to record the cloud types and the amount of cloud cover. I found, surprisingly, there were so many different types of clouds and none of them were exactly the same as those in textbooks. Since then, I have enjoyed watching clouds and explaining the features with my knowledge. The more I learn about clouds, the more questions I have. For example, to what extent do human activities, such as the increasing carbon dioxide and aerosol emissions, influences the properties of clouds, including cloud top height, cloud cover, and cloud particle size? And how do these changes in cloud properties affect weather and climate? These questions have been intensively studied but we still do not have comprehensive answers yet.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading books, watching anime and sports, and spending time outdoors.