Robert is a second year PhD student who received his bachelor’s degree in Earth System Science from UC Irvine in 2016. He is interested in quantifying the climatic consequences that result from energy production as well as from land use change. In addition, Robert would like to inform members of the public and policy makers using findings from his research. His hope is that his research may help identify cost effect viable solutions to anthropogenic effects on the Earth system.

Recent and Pending Publications:

Fofrich, R. D. Tong, K. Calvin, H-S de Boer, J. Emmerling, O. Fricko, S. Fujimori, G. Luderer, J. Rogelj, and Davis, S.J. (in prep) Infrastructural inertia in climate mitigation scenarios.

Shearer, C., D. Tong, R. Fofrich, and Davis, S.J. (in prep) Committed emissions of the U.S. natural gas boom.

Shearer, C., Fofrich, R., and Davis, S.J. (2017) Future CO₂ emissions and electricity generation from proposed coal-fired power plants in India. Earth's Future

Yue Qin earned her PhD from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 2017, where she worked with Prof. Denise Mauzerall. At UC Irvine, Yue is working to estimate the inertia of global water demand and the vulnerability of agriculture to future changes in snowfall, co-advised by Profs. Davis and Nathan Mueller. Her work is part of the NSF INFEWS project led by Prof. Davis

Recent and Pending Publications:

Qin, Y., N.D. Mueller, S. Siebert, R.B. Jackson, A. AghaKouchak, J.B. Zimmerman, J. Burney, D. Tong, C. Hong, and S.J. Davis. (in press) Flexibility, intensity, and vulnerability of global water use. Nature Sustainability

Qin, Y., Wagner, F., Scovronick, N., Peng, W., Yang, J., Zhu, T., Smith, K., and Mauzerall, D. (2017) Air quality, human health and climate implications of China’s synthetic natural gas development. PNAS, v. 114, no. 19, p. 4887-4892.

Dan Tong earned her PhD from the Center for Earth System Science at Tsinghua University in 2017, where she worked with Profs. Qiang Zhang and Kebin He. At UC Irvine, Dan is working to update estimates of global "committed" CO2 emissions using a detailed global database of primary power infrastructure that she developed.

Recent and Pending Publications:

Tong, D., Q. Zhang, Y. Zheng, K. Caldeira, C. Shearer, C. Hong, Y. Qin, and S.J. Davis (in review) Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5°C climate target.

Tong, D., Zhang, Q., Davis, S.J., Liu, F., Geng, G., Xue, T., Li, M., Hong, C., Lu, Z., Steets, D.G., Guan, D., and He, K. (2018) Targeted emission reductions from global super-polluting power plant unit. Nature Sustainability, v. 1, p. 59-68.

Zhang, Q., Jiang, X., Tong, D., Davis, S.J., Zhao, H., Geng, G., Feng, T., Zheng, B., Lu, Z., Streets, D.G., Lin, J., Ni, R., Guan, D., Brauer, M., Martin, R.V., Huo, H., Liu, Z., Pan, D., Kan, H., and He, K. (2017) Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade. Nature , v. 543, p. 705-709.

Lin, J., Tong, D., Davis, S.J., Ni, R., Tan, X., Pan, D., Zhao, H., Lu, Z., Streets, D.G., Feng, T., Zhang, Q., Yan, Y., Hu, Y., Li, J., Liu, Z., He, K., Huang, Y., and Guan, D. (2016) Globalized climate forcing of aerosols via international trade. Nature Geoscience, v. 9, p. 790-794.

Chaopeng Hong earned his PhD from the Center for Earth System Science at Tsinghua University in 2017, where he worked with Profs. Qiang Zhang and Kebin He. At UC Irvine, Chaopeng is working to update assess the effect of air pollution on California agriculture as part of the NSF INFEWS project led by Prof. Davis.

Recent and Pending Publications:

Hong, D., Zhang, Q., Zhang, Y., Davis, S.J., Tong, D., Zheng, Y., He, K., Schellnhuber, J. (in review) Impacts of climate change on future air quality and human health in China

Hong, C., Zhang, Q., He, K., Guan, D., Li, M., Liu, F., and Zheng, B. (2017) Variations of China's emission estimates: response to uncertainties in energy statistics. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v. 17, p. 1227-1239.

Former Davis group students Geoff Bernd, Erin Delman, and Alyssa Wu have helped to develop a comprehensive table of infromation on worldwide energy resources, in collaboration with and with support from the Aspen Global Change Institute. Ongoing work will use the information as input to a web-based educational tool whereby users can design their own global energy system an see trade-offs in cost and emissions related to different energy systems.