Scholarship: Fully-funded
Degree: Bachelor/Master/Ph.D
Nationality: International Students
Location: USA
Application deadlines: Open
Scholarship Description:
The School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, led by Professor Yang Tian, is recruiting two fully funded PhD students (covering tuition and living expenses) for fall 2026, and two postdoctoral researchers. Candidates with backgrounds in hydrology, water resources management, data science, AI/DL, extreme meteorology, climate change, or civil/water engineering are encouraged to apply. The PhD application deadline is December 1, 2025. Postdoctoral positions start between January and April 2026 (flexible). Interviews for both positions will begin immediately until filled.
Dr. Yang Tian is currently an associate professor (tenured) in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Oklahoma and will join the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan on January 1, 2026, as an associate professor (tenured). He received his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in 2009 and his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, in 2015, under the mentorship of Soroosh Sorooshian, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
After earning his PhD, Dr. Yang worked at Deltares in the Netherlands, focusing on hydrological and water resource changes under climate change, extreme weather, and natural disasters, as well as the system operation and optimization of reservoirs and hydraulic facilities. He contributed to the development of critical reservoir optimization software for the Bonneville Power Administration and decision tools for hydrological forecasting at 13 river forecasting centers under NOAA’s National Weather Center.
In 2018, Dr. Yang joined the University of Oklahoma as a tenure-track assistant professor and achieved tenure as an associate professor in 2024. He is also a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious honors for early-career scholars in the U.S., aimed at supporting promising young faculty in integrating research and teaching. Recipients must demonstrate originality and cutting-edge research while also proposing innovative educational and mentorship plans, making this award one of the highest honors for evaluating research capability and educational mission.
Available Subjects:
- Hydrometeorology, water resources, extreme climate, AI, and large models.
- Development, debugging, and application of hydrological models (including but not limited to Sac-SMA, VIC, SWAT, WRF-Hydro, Noah-MP).
- Water resource management (reservoir and hydropower planning, systems engineering design, decision support, river forecasting, drought forecasting and impacts, watershed management, water supply system simulation, and lake management).
- Experience in AI/DL applications and development (LSTM, CNN, State Space Model, Diffusion Model).
- Climate change and extreme weather forecasting (hurricanes, extreme precipitation, snowmelt, floods, wildfires).
- Application and exploration of big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning in water, energy, and food sectors.
- AI and deep learning analysis of multi-scale responses in hydrological and climate systems, fusion of AI and physical models.
- Experience with atmospheric models (WRF, MPAS, CESM, or E3SM).
- GUI development, geospatial data analysis and visualization, and backend AI model visualization experience.
Eligibility criteria:
- Applicants must meet the basic requirements of the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School and have backgrounds in hydrology, water resources, atmospheric sciences, AI/DL, data science, or civil/water engineering. Candidates should demonstrate a rigorous academic attitude, an optimistic outlook, innovative capabilities, and the ability to conduct research in a team environment.
- The application deadline for PhD students is December 1, with interviews starting immediately until positions are filled. Postdoctoral positions will begin in early 2026 through spring.
Application Procedure:
Please send an email in English to Dr. Yang at his OU email: tiantian.yang@ou.edu, and copy his University of Michigan email yangtt@umich.edu (officially activated in January). Attach the following documents:
- Resume
- Undergraduate transcript
- TOEFL or IELTS scores, and GRE scores (if available)
- Research statement and PDF of representative work
- Details of any relevant research experience or outcomes in the email body or attachments
- In addition to email contact, you may add Dr. Yang on WeChat: tiantiay. When adding, please indicate your real name, undergraduate institution, and whether you are applying for a PhD or postdoctoral position. Also, send the relevant materials to his OU email.