• Agroecosystem Modeling and Sensing
• Ecohydrology
• Terrestrial Remote Sensing
• Crop Modeling and Forecasting
• Agriculture Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change

Associate Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
Founding Director, Agroecosystems Sustainability Center
Blue Waters Professor
Chief Scientist, NASA Acres Program
609-647-1368
kaiyug@illinois.edu

Dr. Guan has been on the faculty of UIUC since 2016, when he arrived as a Blue Waters professor for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. With a PhD in environmental engineering from Princeton University, Dr. Guan conducts interdisciplinary research that brings together plant ecology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, climate science satellite/airborne data, fieldwork, supercomputing, and machine learning to revolutionize how we monitor and model plant-water-nutrient interactions for agricultural ecosystems. His work aims to increase our society’s resilience and adaptability to maintain sustainability of ecosystem services, food security and water resources under the influence of climate change and anthropogenic drivers.

Dr. Guan provides solutions for real-life problems, such as large-scale crop monitoring and forecasting, water management and sustainability, and global food security. He uses satellite data, computational models, field work, and machine learning approaches to address how climate and human practices affect crop productivity, water resource availability, and ecosystem functioning.

Fun Facts!
Dr. Guan enjoys rooting for the Chicago Bulls, playing soccer and boxing. His favorite vacation spot is Hawaii and favorite foods are sushi, seafood and steak.