Biography
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
Additional Campus Affiliations
Office of Research Fellow, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Professor, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
Professor, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
Director, Agroecology Sustainability Center, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Professor, Center for Digital Agriculture, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Recent Publications
Coppess, J. W., Guan, K., Qin, Z., & Boparai, K. (2025). Applying Science and Research to Inform Policy Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture. In T. L. Killeen, D. J. Wuebbles, & J. E. Lane (Eds.), Pathways to Sustainability: Collaborative Solutions for a Resilient Future University of Illinois Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/136245
Gao, L., Guan, K., Jiang, C., Lu, X., Wang, S., Ainsworth, E. A., Wu, X., & Chen, M. (2025). Incorporating environmental stress improves estimation of photosynthesis from NIRvP in US Great Plains pasturelands and Midwest croplands. Remote Sensing of Environment, 316, Article 114516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114516
Kim, N., Jang, C., Yang, W., Guan, K., DeLucia, E. H., & Lee, D. (2025). Spatial variability of agricultural soil carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide fluxes: Characterization and recommendations from spatially high-resolution, multi-year dataset. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 387, Article 109636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.109636
Li, Z., Guan, K., Zhou, W., Peng, B., Nafziger, E. D., Grant, R. F., Jin, Z., Tang, J., Margenot, A. J., Lee, D., Bernacchi, C. J., DeLucia, E. H., Ciampitti, I., Hu, T., Ye, L., Till, J., & Jia, M. (2025). Comparing continuous-corn and soybean-corn rotation cropping systems in the U.S. central Midwest: Trade-offs among crop yield, nutrient losses, and change in soil organic carbon. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 393, Article 109739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.109739
Potash, E., Bradford, M. A., Oldfield, E. E., & Guan, K. (2025). Measure-and-remeasure as an economically feasible approach to crediting soil organic carbon at scale. Environmental Research Letters, 20(2), Article 024025. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada16c