Hi, I’m Yifan! I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, advised by Dr. Vivek Srikrishnan in the Srikrishnan Research Group. My path here has been a winding one: I started out in biotechnology at Beijing Forestry University and forest sciences at the University of British Columbia, then found my way to water during my M.S. at the University of Michigan, modeling the Great Lakes and a groundwater contamination plume with Dr. Andrew Gronewold.
Research
I study how climate, hydrology, institutions, and human decisions interact to shape water scarcity and adaptation. Two questions guide my work: How do environmental processes and societal choices shape vulnerability, resilience, and the distribution of risk? And how can that understanding inform policies and governance that support human well-being and environmental sustainability under uncertainty?
My doctoral research explores these questions in the western United States:
- Explainable AI for water shortage attribution: using deep learning emulators of a process-based hydrologic model and ensembles of explainable AI methods to identify what drives water shortages, and when those explanations can be trusted.
- Water markets and drought adaptation: testing whether water markets respond to scarcity as expected, and who gains or bears the costs when water is traded.
- Benchmarking explanation uncertainty: using the Fire Weather Index as a controlled benchmark to test whether explainable AI recovers known relationships.
I draw on environmental modeling, statistics and econometrics, machine learning, and decision science, paying close attention to how uncertainty, modeling assumptions, and societal values shape scientific conclusions and management choices.
Research interests: coupled human–Earth systems; climate impacts and adaptation; environmental institutions and governance; sustainable resource management; decision-making under uncertainty
News
- Dec 2026: Talk and poster at AGU26 in San Francisco
- Nov 2026: Talk at the Society for Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU) Annual Meeting in Baton Rouge
- Oct 2025: Blog post for Water Programming: “One Model, Many Stories: Why Your AI’s Explanation Might Be Misleading You”
- Jul 2025: Featured in People of PCHES
- Mar 2025: 3rd Place, Poster Presentation at the Cornell Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Research Symposium
Beyond Research
Away from research, you’ll usually find me rock climbing, making ceramics, or snowboarding once winter comes around, and I facilitate team-building programs with Cornell Outdoor Education. I’m also learning photography, and my favorite way to unwind is hanging out with my cat, Boba. I’m always happy to connect, so feel free to email me!