Yu Yao

Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University

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Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Hi! I’m a researcher passionate about aerosol particles, clouds, and climate.

I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021 and am currently a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, working with Professors Natalie Mahowald and Peter Hess on atmospheric chemistry and climate modeling.

Research Interests

My research focuses on understanding how aerosol particles interact with clouds, radiation, and atmospheric chemistry using Earth system models:

  • Cloud chemistry: Investigating how aerosol particles change during cloud processing and how these changes affect their climate-relevant properties
  • Aerosol optical properties: Quantifying how aerosol mixing state affects light absorption and scattering
  • Iron-catalyzed chlorine chemistry: Exploring how mineral dust and sea salt interactions influence the global methane budget

Education