Skip to content Skip to main navigation Report an accessibility issue

Jiafu Mao

ORNL Joint Faculty Professor

Jiafu Mao

Contact Information

Phone
865-241-7815

Email
[email protected]

Links
Google Scholar
ORCID
Personal Website

Research Areas

  • Earth system and land-surface modeling
  • Ecosystem dynamics, vulnerability, and resilience
  • Terrestrial hydrology and soil-moisture dynamics
  • Carbon cycling and vegetation productivity
  • Wildfire prediction, impacts, and risk assessment
  • Remote sensing and model–data integration
  • Machine learning and artificial intelligence for environmental systems
  • Urbanization and urban ecosystem processes
  • Detection and attribution of natural and human drivers
  • Carbon dioxide removal and enhanced rock weathering
  • Integrated ecosystem-and-engineering decision frameworks for carbon dioxide removal

Biography

Jiafu Mao is a Distinguished Scientist in the Earth Systems Modeling Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a Joint Faculty Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Institute for a Secure & Sustainable Environment at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

His research advances the understanding and prediction of vegetation, hydrology, carbon cycling, wildfire, and coupled natural–infrastructure systems. He integrates field measurements, satellite observations, process-based land and Earth system models, and advanced statistical, machine-learning, and artificial-intelligence methods.

His current work examines ecosystem variability and extremes, urbanization effects, soil-moisture and carbon interactions, wildfire–power-grid feedbacks, and strategies for reducing risks to critical infrastructure. He also develops integrated ecosystem-and-engineering approaches for carbon dioxide removal, including enhanced rock weathering and supply-chain optimization.

Mao has led or co-led research supported by DOE, NASA, NSF, UTK, and ORNL and has mentored more than 30 students and early-career researchers across disciplines and institutions.

Education

Professional Service

  • Associate Editor, Water Resources Research, 2024–Present
  • Topic Editor, Earth System Science Data, 2023–Present
  • Associate Editor, CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, 2021–Present
  • Subject Editor, Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, 2016–Present
  • Lead, DOE RUBISCO Soil Moisture Working Group, 2023–Present
  • Member, North American Carbon Program Science Leadership Group, 2021–Present
  • Member, CMIP Data Request Land and Land Ice Author Team, 2024–Present
  • Member, CMIP Impacts and Adaptation Author Theme, 2024–Present
  • President, Ecological Society of America Asian Ecology Section, 2023–2025
  • President and Vice President, Sino-Ecologists Association Overseas, 2018–2024

Awards & Recognitions

  • Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher Award, 2025
  • Best Editor Award, Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, 2025
  • Service Excellence Award, Sino-Ecologists Association Overseas, 2024
  • Stanley I. Auerbach Award for Research Excellence, ORNL Environmental Sciences Division, 2020
  • Supplementary Performance Award, ORNL, 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2026
  • Visiting Scholar, National Center for Meteorological Research, Météo-France, 2016
  • Significant Event Award for contributions to the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment–Tropics, ORNL, 2015
  • Significant Event Award for contributions to IPCC and National Assessment activities, ORNL, 2014