Biography
Dr. Yuepeng Li is a marine scientist with expertise in numerical modeling of physical and biochemical processes and the consequence of their transport in coastal and estuarine environments; in particular, the transport driven by wind, wave, tide, and density. He completed his Ph.D. in Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary in 2006. His dissertation research is the first finite volume eutrophication model for coastal shallow water using an unstructured grid, which resulted in many refereed projects and journal articles.
Dr. Li is the key developer of the FIU storm surge CEST Model (Coastal & Estuarine Storm Tide) that is currently used by the National Hurricane Center in their forecasts and by emergency managers. He is also an expert of remote sensing, and deriving the high-quality digital elevation model (DEM) and bathymetry data from TanDEM-X mission launched by the German Aerospace Center. He has several projects funded by FLOIR, NSF, USACE, NOAA, WMO, USAID, and OFDA. Dr. Li has authored more than 50 journal and conference papers, and technical reports.
Currently, Dr. Li is a Senior Scientist and Interim Director for the Laboratory for Coastal Research at the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) and Extreme Events Institute (EEI) at Florida International University (FIU). Dr. Li is also the Director of the Coastal Inundation and Forecast Demonstration Project (CIFDP-C), which is founded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, World Meteorological Organization, United States Agency for International Development, and Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance. The aim of the CIFDP-C project is to develop the hurricane forecast system including MEOWs and MOMs using storm surge and wave models for hurricane planning and warning for Caribbean countries.