Kaiyu Guan

For More Information

• LinkedIn
• Personal Site

Education

• PhD, Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, 2013
• M.A. Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, 2010
• B.S. Geography, Geoinformatics, Nanjing University, 2008

Biography

I am a Levenick Endowed Professor in agroecosystem sensing and modeling at UIUC, a Blue-Waters Professor in Supercomputing at UIUC-NCSA, a University Scholar of the University of Illinois System, the Founding Director of Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) at UIUC, and also the Chief Scientist of the NASA Acres Consortium - representing NASA's flagship program in advancing US agriculture research. My major affiliations at UIUC are with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), Siebel School of Computing and Data Sciences (CS), College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), and National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). My research group uses advanced process models, satellite sensing technology, fieldwork, and artificial intelligence to address how climate and human practices affect crop productivity, water resources, ecosystem functioning, and environmental sustainability. We have strong interests in applying our knowledge and skills to real-life problems such as large-scale crop monitoring and forecasting, quantification of environmental impacts of farming/grazing (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions), agricultural policy design, water management and sustainability, and global food security.

Recruitment: We are recruiting Research Scientists, Postdocs, and PhD Students in Ecosystem Modeling and Remote Sensing. See details at our website.
For Prospective Students: I recruit PhD and Master's students from the following programs @ UIUC:
PhDs: NRES, PEEC, Informatics
Masters & PhDs: Computer Science

Academic Positions

• Full Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2024-Present
• Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021-2024
• Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2016-2021
• Blue Waters Professor in Supercomputing, NCSA, 2016-Present
• Founding Director, Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, UIUC, 2021-Present
• Postdoctoral scholar, Stanford University, 2013-2015

Other Professional Employment

• Founder and Chief Scientist, HabiTerre Inc., 2019-Present
• Research Scientist, The Climate Corporation, 2015

Research Interests

• Agroecosystem Modeling, Cross-scale Remote Sensing (ground/airborne/satellite), Model-Data Fusion, Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, Biogeochemistry, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Agroecosystem Forecasting, Artificial Intelligence, Science-to-Policy, Science-to-Practical Solutions.

Selected Articles in Journals

• Please refer to Google Scholar.

Professional Societies

• American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• American Meteorological Society (AMS)
• Ecological Society of America (ESA)
• European Geophysical Union (EGU)

Honors

• National winner of the agInnovation Research Innovation Award of Excellence (2025)
• Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientist Finalist (2025)
• Levenick Endowed Professorship (2025)
• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list (2024)
• Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientist Finalist (2024)
• American Society of Agronomy Plenary E.T. and Vam York Distinguished Lectureship (2024)
• James B. Macelwane Medal, AGU (2023)
• AGU fellow (2023)
• University Scholar, University of Illinois System (2023)
• Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, College of ACES, UIUC (2023)
• FoodShot Global Groundbreaker Prize, FoodShot Global and Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, FFAR, (2022)
• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list (2022, 2023)
• Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) Innovator of the Year Awards (2022)
• Finalist of Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award (2021)
• Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists Finalist (2021)
• Faculty Fellow of Environmental Sustainability, National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (2021)
• FFAR Seeding Solutions Award, FFAR (2021)
• Microsoft "AI for Earth" Research Award (2021)
• High-Performance-Computing (HPC) Innovation Excellence Award, Hyperion Research (2020)
• CAS Faculty Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2020)
• Faculty Fellowship on Climate Risk, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2019)
• Amazon "Earth on AWS" Award, Amazon (2019)
• SoAR Foundation's annual selection of scientists to represent the U.S. agricultural research, SoAR Foundation (2019)
• NSF CAREER Award, NSF (2019)
• AGU Global Environmental Change Early Career Award, American Geophysical Union (AGU) (2018)
• Blue Waters Professorship, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, UIUC (2016)
• NASA New Investigator Award, NASA (2016)