Dr. Guiling Wang, an associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Director of the Environmental Engineering Program, has been named the Al Geib Professor. Dean of Engineering Mun Y. Choi announced Dr. Wang’s selection, saying “Dr. Wang’s contributions are of enormous importance to our understanding of the interactions among climate, surface hydrology, vegetation and human activities. This named professorship shines a spotlight on the importance of her work.”

Dr. Wang, who is also affiliated with the Center for Environmental Science & Engineering (CESE), earned her Ph.D. in hydroclimatology at MIT in 2000. Before joining UConn in 2003, she worked as a research associate at Princeton University and an assistant research scientist with the NASA/University of Maryland joint Goddard Earth Science & Technology Center in Greenbelt, MD.

The Al Geib Professorship recognizes an assistant or associate professor in the interdisciplinary Environmental Engineering Program who has attained exceptional achievements in his or her area of research.

Dr. Wang’s research is supported by NSF, NASA, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and USDA. In 2008 she was awarded more than $275,000 in funding by NOAA to conduct research aimed at identifying and understanding the interactions among soil moisture, vegetation and precipitation over North America. She is also a core contributor to a USAID/Higher Education Development project with Ethiopia aimed at building the nation’s capacity to solve its water crisis. She has published 37 scholarly journal papers (over 430 citations), one book chapter, and numerous conference proceedings; serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research — Biogeosciences and is an external expert for the International Food Policy Research Institute.