CV

Academic Experience

• 2025 – present: Post-doctoral Researcher, Department of Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  • Supervisor: Prof. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen (kthchen@uw.edu)
• 2023 – 2025: Post-doctoral Researcher, Civil and Environmental Engineering, HKUST
  • Supervisor: Prof. Zhe Wang (cezhewang@ust.hk)
• 2019 – 2025: Teaching Assistant, Civil and Environmental Engineering, HKUST
  • Advised 6 M.Sc. and 19 B.Sc. students on final theses and research projects.
  • Conducted tutorials, graded assignments/exams, and addressed student inquiries for undergraduate courses.

Education

• Ph.D. (2023), Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
  • Supervisor: Prof. Jiachuan Yang (cejcyang@ust.hk)
  • GPA: 3.922/4.3
• B.E. (2019), Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
  • Supervisor: Prof. Jianyao Chen (chenjyao@mail.sysu.edu.cn), Prof. Ming Luo (luom38@mail.sysu.edu.cn)
  • GPA: 91/100

Research Interests

• Urban Climate; Urban Heat Island; Land-Atmosphere Interaction;
• Urban-scale Building Energy Model; Green Building and Sustainable Development;
• Impact Assessment of Renewable Energy Technology;
• Public Health; Human thermal comfort; Climate–health equity.

Selected Honors and Awards

• 2025: UW Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow, eScience Institute, University of Washington
• 2023 – 2025: Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) – Research Talent Hub, Innovation and Technology Commission, The Government of the Hong Kong SAR
• 2022: RedBird Academic Excellence Award, HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School
• 2019 – 2023: Postgraduate Studentship, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• 2019: 11th National Excellent Graduate in Hydraulic Engineering, China Association of Hydraulic Engineering Education
• 2019: Outstanding Undergraduate Graduates, Sun Yat-sen University

Publications

[1] Chen, L., Zhang, S., Li, X. C., Chui, T. F. M., Yang, J., Wang, W., Hong, T., & Wang, Z. (2026). Mitigating Urban Climate-Energy Feedback with Citywide Building-Integrated Photovoltaics Implementation. Nexus.

[2] Chen, L., Zhang, S., Cheng, I., Chang, H., Chen, F., Li, M., & Wang, Z. (2025). The Resilience Paradox of Rooftop PV: Building Cooling Penalties and Heat Risks. Building and Environment, 113233.

[3] Chen, L., Lin, Z., Zhou, Q, Zhang, S., Li, M., Wang, Z. (2025). Impacts of photovoltaics and integrated green roofs on urban climate: Experimental insights for urban land surface modelling, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 217 (2025) 115709.

[4] Chen, L., Yang, J., & Zheng, X. (2024). Modelling the impact of building energy consumption on urban thermal environment: The bias of the inventory approach. Urban Climate, 53, 101802.

[5] Chen, L., Sun, Y., Zhang, N., Yang, J., & Wang, D. (2024). Quantifying the benefits of BIPV windows in urban environment under climate change: A comparison of three Chinese cities. Renewable Energy, 119740.

[6] Chen, L., Yang, J., & Li, P. (2022). Modelling the effect of BIPV window in the built environment: Uncertainty and sensitivity. Building and Environment, 208, 108605.

[7] Chen, L., Zheng, X., Yang, J., & Yoon, J. H. (2021). Impact of BIPV windows on building energy consumption in street canyons: Model development and validation. Energy and Buildings, 249, 111207.

[8] Chen, L., Chen, X., Cheng, L., Zhou, P., & Liu, Z. (2019). Compound hot droughts over China: Identification, risk patterns and variations. Atmospheric Research, 227, 210-219.

[9] Yu, H., Chen, L., Wang, J., Bao, C., Liu, Y., Li, Y., … & Cheng, P. (2026). Energy-generating smart windows based on reversible metal electrodeposition. Materials Horizons.

[10] Zhang, S., Chen, L., Xu, L., & Wang, Z. (2025). GeoBEM: A geospatial computing empowered framework for urban-scale building energy modeling. Sustainable Cities and Society, 106203.

[11] Lieber, J., Chen, X., Chen, L., & Yang, J. (2025). Comparative analysis of microclimate simulations: Assessing the single-layer urban canopy model and ENVI-met in Hong Kong. Urban Climate, 64, 102621.

[12] Zhang, S., Zhou, Y., Chen, L., Huang, Y., & Wang, Z. (2025). Inferring building type using textual data and Natural Language Processing for urban building energy modelling. Building and Environment, 269, 112428.

[13] Zheng, X., Chen, L., & Yang, J. (2023). Simulation framework for early design guidance of urban streets to improve outdoor thermal comfort and building energy efficiency in summer. Building and Environment, 228, 109815.

[14] Wang, Y., Chen, L., Song, Z., Huang, Z., Ge, E., Lin, L., & Luo, M. (2019). Human-perceived temperature changes over South China: Long-term trends and urbanization effects. Atmospheric Research, 215, 116-127.

[15] Song, Z., Chen, L., Wang, Y., Liu, X., Lin, L., & Luo, M. (2019). Effects of urbanization on the decrease in sunshine duration over eastern China. Urban Climate, 28, 100471.

Conference Presentation

[1] 2024 AGU Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union (AGU). Elightning and Poster, Washington, DC (United States), Dec 2024.

[2] 10th National Urban Meteorological Academic Forum, Chinese Meteorological Society. Poster, Hangzhou (China), Oct 2024.

[3] 2nd International Bay Area Urban Agglomeration Green Development Conference (IBACEC) and the 2024 Academic Annual Meeting of Urban Agglomeration Green Development Committee of Chinese Society for Urban Studies (CSUS), Oral, Macau, Aug 2024.

[4] Asian University Alliance (AUA) Seminar – Smart and low carbon city, Oral & Session chair, Hong Kong, Jun 2024.

[5] 11th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC), The International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC), Oral, Sydney (Australia), Aug 2023.

[6] 20th Annual Meeting, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS). Oral, Singapore, Jul 2023.

[7] 9th National Urban Meteorological Academic Forum. Chinese Meteorological Society. Oral, Xiong An (China), May 2023. Received Best Paper Award.

[8] 2022 AGU Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union (AGU). Poster, Chicago (US), Dec 2022.

[9] 19th Annual Meeting, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS). Poster, Online, Aug 2022.

[10] 8th National Urban Meteorological Academic Forum, Chinese Meteorological Society. Oral, Online, Oct 2021.

Projects

[1] Three-dimensional Urban LCLUC and Heat Impacts on Human Health in the Mediterranean Region, NASA Grant, 80NSSC24K1039, 2025 – present, Key team member.

[2] Toward 2060 Carbon Neutrality: Life-cycle Planning and Design of Photovoltaic Integrated Green Roof (PVIGR) Systems for Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong Research Grant Committee, Collaborative Research Fund, C6003-22Y, 2023 – 2026, Sub-task leader.

[3] Interaction mechanisms between building energy consumption and urban climate, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2021 – 2023, Key team member.

Service and Professional Memberships

[1] Reviewer of Sustainable Cities and Society; npj Urban Sustainability; Building and Environment; Energy and Buildings; Geography and Sustainability; Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics; Scientific Data; Urban Climate; Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology; Building Simulation; Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering.

[2] Member of American Geophysical Union (AGU), since 2022.

[3] Member of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS), since 2022.

[4] Member of International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC), since 2023.

Skills

Programming: MATLAB, Python, Fortran.

Climate modelling: Urban canopy model coupled with building energy model; Weather Research and Forecasting model.

Building energy simulation: EnergyPlus, OpenStudio.

Others: High-performance computing (HPC), ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Office, SketchUp, Adobe Illustrator.

Languages Chinese (Mandarin: native, Hakka: native, Cantonese: fluent)

English: professional working proficiency