Li-Chuan Chen

Li-Chuan was awarded the 2009 Outstanding Reviewer for the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.

Li-Chuan Chen is a UCAR Project Scientist at the NOAA Office of Hydrologic Development in Silver Spring, Maryland. She is currently working on updating precipitation frequency estimates for different U.S. states and performs research relevant to precipitation frequency analysis.

Li-Chuan received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, R.O.C. and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include the role of hydrometeorology in the coupled Earth system. Specifically focused on physical aspects of the global and terrestrial water cycles (including precipitation, evaporation, and runoff), their interactions within the Earth system, and implications for engineering applications. She is particularly interested in investigating the physical mechanisms that produce extreme rainfall and their linkages to flood generation, building theory and models to describe and mimic such processes, and developing methodologies to obtain reasonable estimates for engineering applications. She is also interested in how the movement of water over and through the land surface links terrestrial processes with those in the atmosphere (including important feedbacks on precipitation), and characterizing changes in precipitation and floods in response to natural climate variability, global change, and human activities. Other research interests include hydroclimatology and hydrology.

Dr. Chen is a member of the American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, and International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research. She serves on several national and local committees including the American Geophysical Union Precipitation Committee and American Society of Civil Engineers/Environmental & Water Resources Institute Probabilistic Approaches Committee. She has published in journals such as Water Resources Research and Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, and serves as a reviewer for Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, Journal of Hydroinformatics, Advances in Water Resources, and Journal of Hydrology. Dr. Chen has received various awards including a prestigious scholarship from the Ministry of Education of Taiwan and travel grants from the American Meteorological Society.