Lun Gao

Background & Expertise

Lun Gao is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute on the Environment, specializing in remote sensing, ecohydrology, agriculture and artificial intelligence. His research focuses on advancing global sustainable water, food and land systems while mitigating their environmental impacts through satellite remote sensing and data-driven approaches. 

Prior to joining IonE, Gao served as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2022–24, where his work centered on plant photosynthesis and soil–plant–atmosphere interactions. He earned his PhD in civil engineering (water resources) from the University of Minnesota in 2022. His doctoral research addressed inversion methodologies for retrieving surface soil moisture and vegetation optical depth using microwave satellite observations.