Congratulations to the award recipients!
2025 Luke Howard Award
Prof Fei Chen has been awarded Luke Howard Award 2025 for his lifelong achievements and international leadership and impact in the area of urban climate modelling (WRF-Urban).
Bio: Fei Chen is the Associate Head and Professor in the Division of Environment and Sustainability at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to this current role, he spent over 26 years at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, USA) and led major projects to develop community land/hydrology models, as well as coupled numerical weather prediction and regional climate models. These modeling tools have been adopted by numerous international operational weather prediction centers and research institutions. He led the international efforts to develop the integrated WRF-Urban modeling system. He has made significant contributions to understanding land-atmosphere feedback mechanisms, particularly those affecting the boundary layer and precipitation in urban settings. He currently serves as Co-Chair of WMO-WWRP Urban-Predict Project, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Urban Climate, and Co-Chair of the Urban Meteorology Committee, Chinese Meteorological Society. He is elected Fellow of American Meteorological Society (AMS) and American Geophysical Union and was an Elected Board Member of the International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC) Board. He received the Helmut E. Landsberg Award “for leading the development of the WRF-Urban Modeling System and significant contributions to understanding urban environmental issues” from AMS in 2018. He has authored over 230 peer-reviewed publications including more than 70 journal articles on urbanization impacts on weather, climate, PBL dynamics, and extreme rainfall.
2025 Tim Oke Award
Prof Chao Yuan has been awarded Timothy Oke Award 2025 for leading research work across the boundaries of urban climate science, urban planning and architecture.
Bio: Dr. Chao Yuan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he serves as Deputy Head (Research) and leads the Urban Climate Design Lab. His interdisciplinary work bridges architecture, urban planning, and climate science, with a focus on LiDAR-driven CFD modelling, anthropogenic heat, urban greenery cooling, and design-based heat mitigation. He is the Principal Investigator of several major projects, including the NRF Investigatorship (2025–2030) on urban microclimate nowcasting and heat-health resilience. He collaborates actively with government agencies and international institutions such as ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge. He also previously collaborated with researchers at MIT. Dr. Yuan was awarded the Presidential Young Professorship by NUS in 2019, and in 2025, he received the Timothy Oke Award for his contributions to urban climate research and design innovation.
Prof Qi Li has been awarded Timothy Oke Award 2025 for her research excellence in large-eddy simulations contributing to fundamental understanding of the physics of flow in the built environment with various application including microplastics.
Bio: Dr. Qi Li completed her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University in 2016. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Peking University, China. Prior to joining Peking University, she was an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, U.S. Dr. Li’s research explores the impacts of urban form and function on the atmospheric environment across local to global scales. Her work integrates advanced computational modeling and data-driven approaches to improve understanding and prediction of the urban lower atmosphere. Her research aims to inform strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities. She is the recipient of the US NSF CAREER award in 2022 and the Timothy Oke Award from the International Association for Urban Climate in 2025.