Lai-yung Ruby Leung
Battelle Fellow, Earth Science
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Dr. L. Ruby Leung is a Battelle Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Her research broadly cuts across multiple areas in modeling and analysis of climate and the hydrological cycle including land-atmosphere interactions, orographic processes, monsoon climate, climate extremes, land surface processes, and aerosol-cloud interactions. Her research on climate change impacts has been featured in Science, Popular Science, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and many major newspapers.
Dr. Leung is the Chief Scientist of Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) supported by U.S. Department of Energy, a major effort to develop state-of-the-art capabilities for modeling human-Earth system processes on DOE’s next generation high performance computers. She has organized key workshops sponsored by DOE, NSF, NOAA, and NASA, and served on advisory panels and NRC and NASEM committee that define future priorities and opportunities in Digital Twin, AI/ML, climate modeling, hydroclimate, and water cycle research. She is an editor of the American Meteorological Society Journal of Hydrometeorology. Dr. Leung is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and Washington State Academy of Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and American Geophysical Union (AGU). She is the recipient of the AMS Hydrologic Sciences Medal in 2022, AGU Global Environmental Change Bert Bolin Award and Lecture in 2019 and the AGU Atmospheric Science Jacob Bjerknes Lecture in 2020. In 2021, Dr. Leung received the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellow Award. She has published over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals.