Welcome to K.J. Liao's webpage:

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. My research areas are impacts of climate change on the environment and human health, regional air quality modeling and design of optimal air quality management strategies .

In particular, my work addresses how environmental policy-makers should respond to climate change to protect the environment and human health from air pollution. To address the issue, I use NASA's GISS GCM outputs and the US EPA's Models3 Regional Air Quality Modeling System to conduct sensitivity and uncertainty analyses of impacts of climate change on regional ozone and particulate matter (PM) in the mid-21st century. In addition to climate change-air quality research, I am also interested in designing optimal multipollutant air quality management strategies using mathematical programming models. My work also includes investigation of impacts of shale oil and gas development on air quality in South Texas.

 Publication                              Awards and Honors                            Research Support                        Teaching 

                     

Left figure: modeled daily maximum 8-hr average ozone concentrations for August, 2007.
Right figure: South Texas night maps for (a) 2008, (b)2009, (c)2010 and (d) 2012 (http://www.blue-marble.de/intro.php). The increase in nighttime lights in 2012 was attributed to the Eagle Ford Shale development.

)Contact Information
    700 University Blvd., MSC 213
    Department of Environmental Engineering
   Texas A&M University-Kingsville
   Kingsville, TX 78363
   Email: kuo-jen.liao@tamuk.edu
   Phone: 361-593-3898

Education
Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008
 M.S., Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, 2002
B.S., Major: Earth Sciences, Minor: Environmental Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, 2000

Employment History
- Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, 2010 - current
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 2008 – 2010
- Graduate Research Assistant, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005 – 2008

Professional Activities
- Referee for: Atmospheric Environment, Environmental Research Letters, EM, Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmosphere and Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association
- Proposal Review: National Science Foundation (Panel Committee)

Professional Activities
- American Geophysical Union (AGU), American Meteorological Society (AMS) and Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA)