Pengwang Zhai

Dr. Peng-Wang Zhai is an Associate Professor in Atmospheric Physics (ATPH) at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Zhai earned his PhD in physics in 2006 at Texas A&M University (TAMU). His PhD research was focused on light scattering by irregular particles and radiative transfer process in general three-dimension media. After graduation he had worked as a postdoctoral research associate at TAMU, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), and a senior research scientist at Science Systems & Applications, Inc. before he joined UMBC as a faculty member of the Physics Department.

Currently, Dr. Zhai’s research interests are in modeling the vector radiative transfer processes in Coupled Atmosphere and Ocean Systems (CAOS), and developing innovative remote sensing algorithms for aerosol and hydrosol properties. He is a science team member of NASA’s Plankton Aerosol Cloud and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, providing theoretical support in developing new and accurate atmospheric correction algorithms using co-located measurements from spectroradiometers and Multi-Angle Polarimeters (MAP). A highlight of his current work includes the development of a vector radiative transfer model based on the successive order of scattering method (RTSOS), which simulates the spectral and angular dependence of polarized light for flexible profile configurations of molecules, aerosols, clouds, and ocean properties. The interaction of gas absorption and scattering and absorption of particles are properly treated. Moreover, it can model inelastic scattering processes in ocean waters, including Raman scattering of pure ocean water and fluorescence of chlorophyll and colored dissolved organic matter. The RTSOS model is used in a series of research papers in understanding the retrievability of aerosol and ocean color information based on MAP measurements.

Besides research, Dr. Zhai enjoys teaching physics courses and mentoring graduate students. He serves as the Graduate Program Director of the ATPH PhD program of UMBC and is dedicated to students’ overall wellbeing and success.

Link: https://aoog.umbc.edu/