Water Quality Under Climate Change Using Big Data and AI Approaches

Water Quality Under Climate Change Using Big Data and AI Approaches

Job Type

Graduate

Job Institution

The Pennsylvania State University

Job Description

Funded graduate positions (MSc or PhD) are available for Fall 2026 admission in Li Reactive Water Group at Penn State University, University Park, USA. We are looking for motivated students who are curious and interested in resolving pressing water challenges that our society faces today. Our research questions focus broadly on understanding and predicting water quantity and quality response to a changing climate including climate extremes (droughts, and floods), and human perturbation (e.g., urbanization, agriculture).

We have multiple collaborative, interdisciplinary projects in field sites with contrasting climate, vegetation, geology, and human perturbations. These watersheds span from high-elevation Rocky Mountain sites (Coal Creek, Colorado; Sagehen River, Neveda), to pacific northwestern Cascades (HJ Andrews, Oregon), to northeastern (Sleepers River, Vermont), to tall grass prairie in Midwest (Konza Prairie, Kansas). We use a combination of field work, big data, machine learning, process-based modeling for in-depth understanding of mechanisms in individual watersheds / rivers, and machine learning / deep learning tools for identifying trends and patterns at the regional to global scales.

Students will work in interdisciplinary, collaborative, and diverse teams from multiple universities, the type of environment that nurture creative ideas and growth as scientists. We often travel to field sites and help collect data with our collaborators in the summer. Students are encouraged to skim through our most recent publications in the last 5 years on Google Scholar page to gather ideas about projects.

Students from earth and environmental sciences, engineering, and related fields are encouraged to apply. We’re dedicated to creating an inclusive and supportive group culture. We welcome applicants with computational, GIS, or statistics skills but these skills are not required. What matters most is an inquisitive mind, along with a thirst to learn and grow.

Interested students are encouraged to contact Prof. Li Li (with resume and transcripts)  .

Appy at: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below). . Please also feel free to apply directly to the Environmental Engineering program and mention Prof. Li as a potential advisor in your research statement. Review application materials will start in early January 2026.

• Stewart et al., 2024. Illuminating the “invisible”: substantial deep respiration and lateral export of dissolved carbon from beneath Soil. Water Resources Research.
• Zhi et al., 2023. Widespread deoxygenation in warming rivers. Nature Climate Change.
• Sadayappan and Li, 2025. Riverine heat waves on the rise, outpacing air heat waves. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
• Li et al., 2024. River water quality shaped by land-river connectivity in a changing climate. Nature Climate Change.