Personal profile
Personal profile
I am a Levenick Endowed Professor in agroecosystem sensing and modeling at UIUC, a Blue-Waters Professor in Supercomputing at UIUC-NCSA, a University Scholar of the University of Illinois System, the Founding Director of Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) at UIUC, and also the Chief Scientist of the NASA Acres Consortium - representing NASA's flagship program in advancing US agriculture research. My major affiliations at UIUC are with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), Siebel School of Computing and Data Sciences (CS), College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), and National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). My research group uses advanced process models, satellite sensing technology, fieldwork, and artificial intelligence to address how climate and human practices affect crop productivity, water resource, ecosystem functioning, and environmental sustainability. We have keen interests in applying our knowledge and skills in solving real-life problems, such as large-scale crop monitoring and forecasting, quantification of environmental impacts of farming/grazing (e.g. greenhouse gas emission), agricultural policy design, water management and sustainability, and global food security.
More information can be found at: http://faculty.nres.illinois.edu/~kaiyuguan/.
Recruitment: We are recruiting Research Scientists, Postdocs, & PhD Students on Ecosystem Modeling and Remote Sensing. See details at our website. For Prospective Students: I recruit PhDs and Masters students from the following programs@UIUC:
PhDs: NRES, PEEC, Informatics
Masters&PhDs: Computer Science
Education
- PhD, Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, 2013
- M.A., Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, 2010
- B.S. Geography, Geoinformatics, Nanjing University, 2008
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Ammonia emissions and depositions over the contiguous United States derived from IASI and CrIS using the directional derivative approach
Li, Z., Sun, K., Guan, K., Wang, S., Peng, B., Clarisse, L., Van Damme, M., Coheur, P. F., Cady-Pereira, K., Shephard, M. W., Zondlo, M. & Moore, D., Jan 15 2026, In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 26, 1, p. 703-721 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Assessing the Impact of Agrivoltaics on Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycles Using the Community Land Model Version 5
Jia, M., Peng, B., Guan, K., Lawrence, D. M., DeLucia, E. H., Lombardozzi, D. L., Sturchio, M. A., Kannenberg, S. A., Knapp, A. K., Du, X., Time, A., Bernacchi, C. J., Lee, D. K., Miljkovic, N., Branham, B. & Khanna, M., Feb 2026, In: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. 18, 2, e2025MS005092.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
A System And Method To Fuse Multiple Sources Of Optical Data To Generate A High-resolution, Frequent And Cloud-/gap-free Surface Reflectance Product
Guan, K. (Inventor), Peng, J. (Inventor) & Luo, Y. (Inventor), Feb 17 2026, U.S. Patent No. 12555208Research output: Patent
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Climate-driven divergence in biophysical and economic impacts of agrivoltaics
Jia, M., Peng, B., Guan, K., Lawrence, D. M., DeLucia, E. H., Knapp, A. K., Barron-Gafford, G. A., Khanna, M., Lombardozzi, D. L., Sturchio, M. A., Kannenberg, S. A., Zhao, L., McCall, J., Tang, J., Bernacchi, C. J., Mwebaze, P., Majeed, F., Lee, D. & Time, A., Mar 10 2026, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 123, 10, e2514380123.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Design and Test of a Lower-Cost Water-Quality Sensor for Nitrate
Furuta, D. C. R., Yang, J., Liu, L., Jin, Z., Guan, K., Peng, B. & Li, J., Feb 13 2026, In: ACS ES and T Water. 6, 2, p. 709-719 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Datasets
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Data for Assessing long-term impacts of cover crops on soil organic carbon in the central U.S. Midwestern agroecosystems
Qin, Z. (Creator) & Guan, K. (Creator), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Feb 7 2023
DOI: 10.13012/B2IDB-4013912_V1
Dataset
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Data for Clumping Index Estimation With 30°-tilted Cameras in Row Crops: Evaluation of Methods and Segment Size Effects
Li, K. (Creator), Jiang, C. (Creator), Ma, Z. (Creator), Wang, S. (Creator), Chen, J. (Creator), Chen, M. (Creator) & Guan, K. (Creator), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Apr 15 2026
DOI: 10.13012/B2IDB-9329464_V1
Dataset
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Data from: Sun-Induced chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis, and light use efficiency of a soybean field
Miao, G. (Creator) & Guan, K. (Creator), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jan 13 2018
DOI: 10.13012/B2IDB-1329706_V1
Dataset
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Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence of two Nebraska maize sites in 2017
Miao, G. (Creator) & Guan, K. (Creator), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jan 28 2020
DOI: 10.13012/B2IDB-5893373_V1
Dataset
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Data from Unique Contributions of Chlorophyll and Nitrogen to Predict Crop Photosynthetic Capacity from Leaf Spectroscopy
Wang, S. (Creator), Guan, K. (Creator), Wang, Z. (Creator), Ainsworth, E. (Creator), Zheng, T. (Creator), Townsend, P. (Creator), Li, K. (Creator), Moller, C. (Creator), Wu, G. (Creator) & Jiang, C. (Creator), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Sep 29 2025
DOI: 10.13012/B2IDB-2124827_V1
Dataset
Press/Media
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Illinois team tests the costs, benefits of agrivoltaics across the Midwest
Peng, B., Guan, K., Khanna, M., Delucia, E. H., Zhao, L., Bernacchi, C., Lee, D., Miljkovic, N. & Branham, B. E.
3/2/26
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Twelve Illinois scientists rank among the world’s most influential
Guan, K., Hoffmann, A. F., Jain, A., Lawson, T., Ort, D. R., Roberts, B. W., Sun, J., Zhao, B., Zhao, H. & Zhao, L.
11/14/25
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Six Illinois scientists rank among world's most influential
Guan, K., Hoffmann, A. F., Jain, A., Long, S. P. & Roberts, B. W.
11/19/24
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Researchers propose a unified, scalable framework to measure agricultural greenhouse gas emissions
9/27/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Five Urbana-Champaign faculty members honored as University Scholars
Bowen, M. L., Leal, C., Diao, Y., Ogolsky, B. G. & Guan, K.
6/7/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
Honors & Recognition
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NASA New (Early Career) Investigator Program in Earth Science Award
Guan, K. (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize/Award