PhD Student Opportunities at UW-Madison in Urban Energy, Climate, and AI
Dr. Xinchang “Cathy” Li is recruiting motivated PhD students to join her new research group in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Preferred start: Summer or Fall 2027. A Spring 2027 start is also possible. Funding: Full funding, including a stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance.
About the PI and Research Group
Dr. Cathy Li is a Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and will join the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UW–Madison as an Assistant Professor in January 2027 through the RISE-AI initiative. She earned her PhD and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2025 and 2019, respectively, and her bachelor’s degree in Building Services Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her group will study interactions among people, urban energy, and climate from local to global scales. Research will combine Earth system modeling, building energy and energy systems modeling, AI/ML, and remote sensing for sustainable and resilient cities. Main research directions include:
- Urban energy and climate: Advance understanding of how cities, climate, energy, and humans interact under global change and inform solutions that maximize co-benefits.
- Energy system resilience: Elucidate how risks propagate through weather, building, and power system networks to improve energy reliability and resilience.
- Human-urban-Earth system modeling: Develop models and data to improve the representation and understanding of urban energy and human dynamics and their interactions with Earth systems across scales.
- Artificial intelligence: Build and apply hybrid AI/ML and physics-based modeling tools, surrogate models, foundation models, and agentic AI for science in climate, energy, and Earth system applications.
More information can be found on her website.
Qualifications
An ideal candidate should:
- Hold an undergraduate degree in civil and environmental engineering, atmospheric and climate science, architectural engineering, geography, Earth science, mathematics, computer science, or a related discipline by the start date.
- Have a strong interest in one or more of the research areas above.
- Have a solid quantitative background and good academic writing and communication skills.
- Be self-motivated, curious, creative, and capable of independent thinking, and enjoy interdisciplinary work and collaborations.
The following qualifications will be a plus:
- Proficiency in one or more coding languages, such as Python, Fortran, R, or Julia, for scientific programming.
- Research experience in one or more of the following: Earth system or regional climate modeling (e.g., CESM, E3SM, WRF), building energy modeling (e.g., EnergyPlus), urban climate modeling, remote sensing, high-performance computing, open-source workflows, traditional AI/ML, foundation models (e.g., large language-vision models or Earth foundation models), or agentic AI.
How to Apply
Please complete the prospective PhD student form: https://surveymars.com/q/druhKghEB. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and selected candidates will be contacted for next steps. To ensure a fair and efficient review process, only applications submitted through the survey above will be considered; email applications will not be reviewed. UW-Madison CEE PhD program information & how to apply: UW–Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD Program. Past work and additional information: https://cathyxinchangli.github.io/.