CV

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
  1. Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Student Abroad, 2020
  2. GFD fellowship, WHOI, 2019
  3. Lorenz/Houghton Postdoc Fellowship, MIT, 2019
  4. Outstanding Student Presentation Award, AOFD meeting, 2019
  5. Outstanding Student Paper Award, AMS annual meeting, 2019
  6. Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geophysical Union, 2017
  7. First Prize (4th place), ‘Jiang Zehan’ Cup Numerical Modeling Tournament, China, 2013
  8. Twice awarded the merit student prize, Peking University (PKU), 2012 and 2013
  9. Twice awarded Weiming Undergrad. Physicist Scholarship, PKU,2012 and 2013
  10. The Tung OOCL Scholarship (sponsored by Tung Foundation and Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd.), PKU, 2013
  11. The Sea-gull Scholarship, PKU, 2012
  12. Weiming Elite Undergraduate Scientist funding (100,000 CNY), PKU, 2011
  13. First Prize, Physics Competition for Undergraduates, China, 2011
  14. Bronze Prize (8th place), International Young Physicists Tournament, Austria, 2010
  15. No.1 in Physics Olympic Competition, Tianjin Province, 2009. (1st place among >100,000)
  16. Second Prize, Physics Olympic Competition China Final, 2009
  17. Twice awarded First Prize, ‘Yaohua’ Cup Competition, Physics & Chemistry, 2008 and 2009
Publications
  1. 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)
  2. 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)
  3. 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)
  4. Komacek T., W., Kang, J. Lustig-Yaeger, S. Olson, Leveraging models to constrain the climates of rocky exoplanets (under review)
  5. Bire S., W. Kang, J. Campin, J. Marshall, Regimes of ocean circulation on Europa-like icy moons (in prep.)
  6. Kang, W. and E. Tziperman, Sudden Stratospheric Warming and extreme weathers in the future climate driven by the Madden-Julian Oscillation strengthening (in prep.)
  7. 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
  8. Kang, W. and G. Flierl 2020, Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’ ice shell, PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2001648117
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. Kang. W. 2019,Wetter Stratospheres on High Obliquity Planets,  Astrophysical Journal Letter, 877:1, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab1f79
  12. Kang, W. 2019, Mechanisms leading to a warmer climate on high obliquity planets, Astrophysical Journal Letter, 876:1, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab18a8
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  1. “Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell” highlighted by PNAS, 2020
  2. 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)