This is Yuan Sun’s personal webpage. Last updated: 2026-06-24.

Currently, I am an Earth system / urban climate modeler.

• Explore hands-on examples of Earth system modeling for urban climate adaptation through our esm-dev tutorials and model source code.

👩🏻‍🔬 Career

• 2026.09 - present, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS).

📖 Educations

• 2023.07 - 2026.06, PhD in Environmental Science, School of Natural Sciences, The University of Manchester (UoM).
  • Supervised by Dr. Zhonghua Zheng, Prof. David Topping, and Prof. David Schultz.
• 2020.09 - 2023.03, Master of Architecture, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University (ZJU).
  • Supervised by Prof. Zhu Wang.
• 2015.09 - 2020.06, Bachelor of Architecture, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University (ZJU).
  • 2019.01 - 2019.05, Undergraduate exchange student, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore (NUS).

📢 Talks

By project:

• WRF-CLMU coupling
  • 2026.06 Oral at 2026 MPAS/WRF Users Workshop.
  • 2026.02 Oral at Land Model and Biogeochemistry Working Group Meeting.
• Urban traffic heat in CESM
  • 2026.06 Oral at EGU26.
  • 2025.06 Oral at 30th Annual CESM Workshop.
• LCZ-based urban land cover representation in CESM
  • 2026.06 Oral at 31st Annual CESM Workshop.
  • 2026.01 Poster at 106th AMS Annual Meeting.
  • 2025.02 Oral at Land Model and Biogeochemistry Working Group Meeting.
  • 2024.06 Poster at Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) 21st Annual Meeting.
• Transient urban surface albedo representation in CESM
  • 2025.07 Oral at 12th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC12).
  • 2024.06 Oral at 29th Annual CESM Workshop.

💻 Skills

• Multi-scale Earth system modeling:

  • By scale:

    • Global climate model: CESM.
    • Regional climate model: WRF, WRF-CTSM.

  • By component:

    • Atmosphere model: CAM, CAM-Chem.

    • Land surface model: CTSM, JULES.

    • Urban model: CLMU, NOAH-SLUCM.

• High-performance computing (platforms): Archer2, UoM’s HPC, JASMIN.

  • Compiler: GNU.

  • Language: Fortran, Python, Bash.

• Python package development: IPTpy, pyclmuapp, obswx.
• Geography, Urban planning & Architecture design: Google Earth Engine, Rhino, SketchUp, ArcGIS, Autodesk suite (i.e., AutoCAD and Revit).
• Statistics: Python, R, Stata.
• Visualization & Media: Adobe suite (i.e., Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, and Audition).

📝 Publications

As the first/corresponding author

Research interest 1: Urban Climate Modeling

• Sun, Y., et al. (2025). Advancing CLMU for regional urban climate simulations through WRF coupling: intercomparison with NOAH–SLUCM. Preprint. 10.31223/X5MT9P
• Sun, Y., et al. (2026). Modeling urban traffic heat flux in the Community Earth System Model: Formulation and validation for two sites. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. 18(4), e2025MS005435. 10.1029/2025MS005435
• Sun, Y., et al. (2025). Enhancing global-scale urban land cover representation using local climate zones in the Community Earth System Model. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. 17(11), e2025MS004934. 10.1029/2025MS004934
• Sun, Y., et al. (2024). Improving urban climate adaptation modeling in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) through transient urban surface albedo representation. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. 16(12), e2024MS004380. 10.1029/2024MS004380

Research interest 2: Urban Climate Impact Assessment

• Sun, Y., et al . (2026). Linking urban population exposure to heatwaves with land cover change across the UK. Sustainable Cities and Society. 144, 107349. 10.1016/j.scs.2026.107349

Research interest 3: Urban Planning, Landscape & Geography

• Sun, Y. (2025). Mapping urban morphological prototypes: Unveiling local identity in historic water towns of the Northern Zhejiang Plain, China. Geocarto International. 40(1), 2547011. 10.1080/10106049.2025.2547011
• Sun, Y., et al. (2025). County-level urban forms and their correlation with local governance in Jiande, China: Evidence from historical records. Journal of Asia Architecture and Building Engineering. 24(3), 1985-1998. 10.1080/13467581.2024.2322000
• Sun, Y., et al. (2024). Spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in Chinese historic water towns (1918-2021). Landscape Research. 49(4), 568–583. 10.1080/01426397.2024.2322138
• Zheng, Y., Sun, Y., et al. (2022). Developing green–building design strategies in the Yangtze River Delta, China through a coupling relationship between geomorphology and climate. Land. 12(1), 6. 10.3390/land12010006

🎖 Awards

• 2026.01 American Meteorological Society (AMS) 106th Annual Meeting, Third Place Best Urban Student Poster Presentation.

• 2024.06 Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) 21st Annual Meeting, Best Student Poster Award.

• 2021.12, 2019.12, 2018.12, 2017.12, 2016.12 China National Scholarship.
• 2023.03, 2020.06 Outstanding Graduates in Zhejiang Province, China.
• 2019.12 Chu Kochen Scholarship at Zhejiang University.

👩🏻‍🏫 Tutorings

• 2025.07 Associate Fellow of Advance Higher Education (AFAHE)
• 2023.09 - 2026.01 Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) at The University of Manchester