Education
- Feb 2020 – Present Department of Earth, Atmophere and Planetary Science, MIT (Lorenz/Houghton Fellow)
- Sept 2014 – Dec 2019 School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University
- Sept 2010 – Jun 2014 Physics Science Department, Peking University, China
Awards
- Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Student Abroad, 2020
- GFD fellowship, WHOI, 2019
- Lorenz/Houghton Postdoc Fellowship, MIT, 2019
- Outstanding Student Presentation Award, AOFD meeting, 2019
- Outstanding Student Paper Award, AMS annual meeting, 2019
- Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geophysical Union, 2017
- First Prize (4th place), ‘Jiang Zehan’ Cup Numerical Modeling Tournament, China, 2013
- Twice awarded the merit student prize, Peking University (PKU), 2012 and 2013
- Twice awarded Weiming Undergrad. Physicist Scholarship, PKU,2012 and 2013
- The Tung OOCL Scholarship (sponsored by Tung Foundation and Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd.), PKU, 2013
- The Sea-gull Scholarship, PKU, 2012
- Weiming Elite Undergraduate Scientist funding (100,000 CNY), PKU, 2011
- First Prize, Physics Competition for Undergraduates, China, 2011
- Bronze Prize (8th place), International Young Physicists Tournament, Austria, 2010
- No.1 in Physics Olympic Competition, Tianjin Province, 2009. (1st place among >100,000)
- Second Prize, Physics Olympic Competition China Final, 2009
- Twice awarded First Prize, ‘Yaohua’ Cup Competition, Physics & Chemistry, 2008 and 2009
Publications
- Kang, W., S. Bire, T. Mittal, J. Campin, J. Marshall, How does salinity shape ocean circulation and ice geometry on Enceladus and other icy satellites?, Nature Astronomy (under review)
- Kang, W., S. Bire, J. Marshall, The role of ocean circulation in driving hemispheric symmetry breaking of the Enceladus’s ice shell. (about to submit)
- Kang. W., S. Bire, J. Campin, C. Sotin, C. German, A. Thurnherr, J. Marshall, Differing Enceladean ocean circulation and ice shell geometries driven by tidal heating in the ice versus the core (under review)
- Komacek T., W., Kang, J. Lustig-Yaeger, S. Olson, Leveraging models to constrain the climates of rocky exoplanets (under review)
- Bire S., W. Kang, J. Campin, J. Marshall, Regimes of ocean circulation on Europa-like icy moons (in prep.)
- Kang, W. and E. Tziperman, Sudden Stratospheric Warming and extreme weathers in the future climate driven by the Madden-Julian Oscillation strengthening (in prep.)
- Kang, W., F. Ding, R. Wordsworth, and S. Seager 2021, Escaping outflows from disintegrating exoplanets: day-side versus night-side escape, ApJ, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/abcaa7
- Kang, W. and G. Flierl 2020, Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’ ice shell, PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2001648117
- Kang, W. and R. Wordsworth 2019, Collapse of the general circulation in shortwave-absorbing atmospheres: an idealized model study, Astrophysical Journal Letter, 885:18, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab4c43
- Kang. W. 2019,Regime transition between eddy-driven and moist-driven circulation on High Obliquity Planets, Astrophysical Journal, 884:1, doi: 10.3847%2F1538-4357%2Fab3fa2
- Kang. W. 2019,Wetter Stratospheres on High Obliquity Planets, Astrophysical Journal Letter, 877:1, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab1f79
- Kang, W. 2019, Mechanisms leading to a warmer climate on high obliquity planets, Astrophysical Journal Letter, 876:1, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab18a8
- Kang, W., M. Cai and E. Tziperman, 2019, Tropical and Extratropical General Circulation with a Meridional Reversed Temperature Gradient as Expected in a High Obliquity Planet, Icarus, doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.04.028
- Kang, W. and E. Tziperman, 2018, The MJO-SSW teleconnection: interaction between MJO-forced waves and the mid-latitude jet, Geophysical Research Letter 2018, 45:9, 4400-4409, doi: 10.1029/2018gl077937
- Kang, W. and E. Tziperman, 2018, The role of zonal asymmetry in the enhancement and suppression of sudden stratospheric warming variability by the Madden-Julian Oscillation, J. Climate, 31, 2399–2415, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0489.1
- Kang, W. and E. Tziperman, 2017, More Frequent Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events due to Enhanced MJO Forcing Expected in a Warmer Climate, J. Climate, 30,8727–8743, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0044.1
Presentations
- What shapes Ice Shell of Enceladus? AGU (Dec 2020)
- (invited) Climate on High Obliquity planets, AGU (Dec 2020)
- (invited) Ice and Ocean dynamics on Enceladus, Florida State University (Oct 2020)
- (invited) Climate on High Obliquity planets, NOAA, GFDL (Oct 2020)
- Climate on High Obliquity Exoplanet, AGU (Dec 2019)
- (invited) General Circulation and Thermodynamics on High Obliquity planets, California Institute of Technology (Dec 2019)
- Climate on High Obliquity Exoplanet (poster), AOFD (Jun 2019)
- (invited) Dynamics and Thermodynamics on High Obliquity planets, Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) (May 2019)
- (invited) General Circulation on High Obliquity planets, Atmospheric Oceanic Climate Dynamics Seminar, Yale U, (Mar 2019)
- (invited) General Circulation with Reversed Meridional Temperature Gradient, AGU Outstanding Student Presentation (Dec 2018)
- Teleconnection between Madden-Julian Oscillation and Sudden Stratospheric Warming in Future Climate, SPARC general assembly, Japan (Oct 2018)
- (invited) Teleconnection from Tropics to the Arctic Stratosphere, SEAS Colloquium in Climate Science (SCiCS), Columbia U (May 2018)
- Enhancement and suppression of Sudden Stratospheric Warmings by the tropical Madden-Julian Oscillation: the role of the mid-latitude stationary waves, AGU (Dec 2017)
- (invited) Teleconnection between Madden-Julian Oscillation and Sudden Stratospheric Warming in Future Climate, Atmospheric Oceanic Climate Dynamics Seminar, Yale U (Nov 2017)
- Enhancement of Sudden Stratospheric Warming by the tropical Madden-Julian Oscillation, AOFD (June 2017)
Publicity
- “Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell” highlighted by PNAS, 2020
- Nature Climate Change, 2017: Tropics to stratosphere
Professional Service
- Referee: Journal of Climate / Climate Dynamics / Journal of Geophysical Research / Nature Climate Change / Astrophysical Journal
- Presentation Judge: SPARC 2018
Workshop
- HeldFest: Understanding and Modeling the Earth’s Climate, Princeton U. (Oct 2018)
- Model Hierarchy Workshop, Princeton University (Nov 2016)
Summer School
- GFD summer school: Ocean Turbulence and mixing, WHOI (Jun-Aug 2019)
- HeldFest: Understanding and Modeling the Earth’s Climate, Princeton U. (Oct 2018)
- Advanced Climate Dynamics Courses Summer School (ACDC): Hemispheric Asymmetry, Norway (Sep 2018)
- ICTP Summer School on Theory, Mechanisms and Hierarchical Modelling of Climate Dynamics: Multiple Equilibria in the Climate System, ICTP, Italy (Jun 2018)
- Les Houches Summer School on Fundamental Aspects of Turbulent Flows in Climate Dynamics, Les Houches Physics School, France (Aug 2017)
- Using Satellite Observations to Advance Climate Mode, NASA (Aug 2016)
- Rossby Palooza, University of Chicago (Jul 2016)
- Community Earth System Model Tutorial, NCAR (Aug 2015)