Gab at the Lab: Jian Zhang

Jian Zhang, Research Scientist

Jian-Zhang

Background:Ph.D. Meteorology, University of Oklahoma (1999)
M.S. Meteorology, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing (1987)
B.S. Peking (Beijing) University (1984)
Experience:Jian was born in Loyang, a city in the Henan Province of China. She lived in the cities of Taixing and Lanzhou before moving to Beijing to pursue an education in meteorology. After she earned her Master's degree, Jian became a research associate at the Chinese National Satellite Meteorological Center. She came to Oklahoma when her husband was offered a Ph.D. Graduate Research Assistantship at OU School of Meteorology. She decided to pursue her Ph.D. at OU, and completed the program in 1999. Jian was a research scientist with OU CIMMS until 2009, at which time she was offered a Federal research meteorologist position with NSSL.
What She Does:Jian is the Team Leader of the Warning Research Development Division's Storm-Scale HydroMET Applications Research & Development Group. She is also the Lead Scientist for Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) Quantitative Precipitation Estimation Research & Development. She considers herself a Subject Matter Expert on the MRMS System. This operational system combines multi-sensor data and produces high-resolution severe weather and precipitation products for the National Weather Service. Jian was an integral part of the MRMS team that was awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medal in 2015. Her research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Trivia: When she is away from the Lab, Jian enjoys spending time with her family, which includes her husband and two children. She likes traveling, cooking, movies, and music. Her favorite TV shows are Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, and Shark Tank. Jian also enjoys walking and fits in a 3 mile walk every day.

She also notes that there are 87.5 million people with the surname 'Zhang' in China, making it the 3rd most common surname after Wang (92.8M) and Li (92.1M). It is purely coincidental that her husband, CIMMS/NSSL's Pengfei Zhang, has the same last name!

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