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Meet our students: Yinghui Wu

Learn about IEESC’s graduate students and our research

Meet our students: Yinghui Wu profile

Yinghui Wu is a University of Regina PhD student in the Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities.

 

  1. When did you start your PhD studies?

I started my PhD program in September 2015.

  1. How/when did you know that you wanted to attend graduate school?

I found my interest in doing research during the last year as an undergraduate student, so I decided to continue to pursue my Master’s and then my PhD degrees.

  1. Tell us about your research. 

My research is focused on regional climate modelling and related impact assessment. I use regional climate models to get future climate projections for a particular area of interest (e.g., Canada), and analyze future changes in meteorological variables such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed etc. and extreme climate events such as droughts, storms, floods etc. These studies will help to answer how our climate might change under different carbon emission scenarios and what risks we might face with a changing climate. The results will also help policy makers make mitigation and adaptation decisions and develop strategies for climate change.

One of my recent studies looks at global permafrost degradation under climate change. 

It is important because permafrost covers approximately one fourth of the land area of the world’s northern hemisphere. In Canada, around half of the country is permafrost/seasonal frozen ground. Thawing permafrost has great impacts on our ecosystems, hydrologic cycle, and infrastructure. Its degradation will change the nature of soil, thus affecting the hydrological cycle as well as causing damage to infrastructure. 

  1. What do you find most interesting about your research topic?

My results show that under a high carbon emission scenario, global continuous permafrost will be almost non-existent by the year of 2100. As for Canada, there are many Indigenous communities in the North that will be directly affected by these impacts. This is astonishing and shows how climate change could affect our ecosystems.

  1. Tell us about your experience with IEESC/Regina. What have you learned that is most valuable?

IEESC provides the perfect environment for doing research. Dr. Huang is dedicated to research and provides strong support for our students. In IEESC, faculty members are friendly and students are hardworking. We are a big group and will help each other if someone runs into difficulties. 

I have learned that discovery and innovation are of great significance in doing research. A teamwork spirit is also important, because thoughts and ideas may come from discussions or debates with others. 

  1. What advice would you give to a student considering a visit to IEESC/Regina?

I would recommend him/her visit IEESC. We have broad research interests such as optimization, energy, climate, hydrology, and experiments. The atmosphere of our group is good and everyone is glad to help. 

  1. Where do you find your inspiration?

My background was in computer science before my PhD program. So at first I was not familiar with environmental systems engineering. Through discussions with Dr. Huang and others in the group, I gradually found my research interest. My computer skills also help me when running climate models on large servers.

  1. What are your next goals/future plans?

I will continue my research on climate modelling and impact assessment. After graduation I hope to continue my climate-related studies in a research institution.

 

Thanks Yinghui and best wishes for your research!

 

 

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