Xiangdong Zhang

Dr. Xiangdong Zhang is a senior scientist at NCICS and a research professor at the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University. He provides scientific input and leadership within the Technical Support Unit and to the National Coordination Office in support the remaining work on the Fifth National Climate Assessment and planning for future assessments. He also works on attribution of extreme climate events.

Dr. Zhang has conducted integrative research, aiming to improve systematic understanding of the Arctic and Northern Hemisphere climate variability and changes. During recent years, his research has focused on atmospheric circulation dynamics, storm track dynamics, atmosphere-sea ice-ocean-hydrology interactions, extreme climate, weather, and hydrology events, Arctic-lower latitude linkage, Arctic Ocean heat and freshwater cycle, and Arctic sea ice mass balance. His research results have been published at Nature Climate Change, Nature Geoscience, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and other prestigious journals, many of which have contributed to various climate assessment reports and policy decision making and reported by national and international media agencies.

Dr. Zhang has served as a member of the Phenomena, Observations, and Synthesis (POS) panel of the U.S. CLIVAR program, the Arctic Freshwater Synthesis Initiative of the WCRP’s Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project, and the Regional Processes and Transports Working Group of the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA). He recently co-chaired the U.S. CLIVAR Working Group on Arctic Change and Possible Influence on Midlatitude Climate and Weather. He is now serving as a member of the CliC-CLIVAR Northern Oceans Region Panel (NORP), a member of the scientific steering committee of the CMIP6 Polar Amplification Model Intercomparison Project (PAMIP), and a member of the International Advisory Board of the EU H2020 project PolarRES.