Dr. Zong-Liang Yang is a renowned expert in Earth System Science, with a focus on land surface processes and their impact on weather and climate. He is currently the John A. and Katherine G. Jackson Endowed Chair in Earth System Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin and has previously held positions as Director of the Center for Integrated Earth System Science and Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as Research Associate Professor at The University of Arizona. Dr. Yang has authored over 170 peer-reviewed articles, in addition to numerous conference papers, and has received just over $7M in external funding as a Principal Investigator. His research interests include global change, climate modeling, snow, runoff, monsoons, flood and drought, remote sensing, and integrated Earth system modeling. Dr. Yang has also received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Joseph C. Walter Jr. Excellence Award at the Jackson School of Geosciences and the Community Climate System Model Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.