Dr. Zhaoxia Pu is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah, a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Royal Meteorological Society, and a member of the NOAA Science Advisory Board. She is internationally recognized for advancing research in numerical weather prediction (NWP), data assimilation, and high-impact weather forecasting to enhance public safety and strengthen community resilience.
Her research integrates advanced Earth system models (e.g., UFS, E3SM, WRF), satellite and radar observations (e.g., GOES-R, GPM, CYGNSS, TROPICS), cutting-edge data assimilation, and AI/machine learning to enhance predictions of tropical cyclones, extreme precipitation, and other high-impact weather systems. She has led nearly 40 federally funded projects sponsored by NOAA, NASA, NSF, DOE, and ONR; authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications; and contributed to 15 major field campaigns, including serving as lead scientist for the NSF-funded Cold Fog Amongst Complex Terrain (CFACT) project.
Before joining the University of Utah in 2004, Dr. Pu worked at NOAA’s NCEP Environmental Modeling Center as a graduate fellow and postdoctoral researcher, and later as a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Her contributions have been recognized with the Excellence in Research Award (University of Utah College of Science, 2024) and selection to the Provost’s Banner Project honoring the university’s top researchers (2023). She has served on numerous science teams, advisory boards, and review panels for NSF, DOE, NOAA, and NASA, and is an editorial board member for leading journals.
A dedicated educator, Dr. Pu teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and has supervised 28 graduate students to completion. She also received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award from the College of Mines and Earth Sciences (2012).