Prof. CHEN Fei, Associate Head and Professor of the Division of Environment and Sustainability at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has received the prestigious 2025 Luke Howard Award from the International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC). As the second scholar from the Greater China to receive this global accolade, this recognition honors his exceptional leadership and transformative contributions to urban climatology.
As the top award from IAUC, the Luke Howard Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the urban climatology field in terms of a combination of research, teaching, and service to the international community of urban climatologists. The IAUC commended Prof. Chen for his international leadership and impact in urban climate modelling, highlighting his role in shaping policies and developing tools that protect vulnerable urban areas.
"I am deeply grateful for the recognition from the International Association for Urban Climate. The collaboration in urban climate research in 2004 marked the very beginning of my journey and connection with HKUST-a partnership that transcended academic publications to ignite a lasting passion for unravelling how urbanization shapes regional weather and climate. The spirit of that joint effort continues to resonate in my work today, with the insights generated consistently motivating me to break through boundaries in my research and ultimately leading to this prestigious honor." said Prof. Chen.
Prof. Chen is an internationally acclaimed expert in urban weather and climate research with over 28 years of experience in atmospheric research. He holds key roles in organizations including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He has led various international initiatives to develop community weather prediction and climate models, as well as early warning systems for extreme weather. Currently, he leads the Urban-PREDICT project under WMO and the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), focusing on predicting and mitigating urban weather-hazard risks such as localized heavy precipitation, intensification of heat waves due to urban heat-island effects, and deteriorating air quality.
Prof. Chen is currently collaborating with Prof. Alexis LAU, Prof. Jimmy FUNG, and Prof. SHI Xiaoming from the HKUST Division of Environment and Sustainability, and Prof. YANG Jiachuan from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to lead the development of a next-generation global urban weather prediction model. This model aims to enhance the prediction of urban weather hazards and risks for tropical coastal cities with improved accuracy and timeliness, and employs an interdisciplinary approach that integrates physical sciences, social sciences, and AI technology. The recognition by the 2025 Luke Howard Award underscores Prof. Chen's outstanding contributions to urban climatology and complements his impressive list of accolades, including his election as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2024.
Prior to joining HKUST, Prof. Chen spent over 25 years at NCAR-a world-class organization for weather, climate, and earth system science research-where he advanced research on land surface dynamics, hydrological processes, land-atmosphere interactions, and human-nature system coupling. In 2004, He embarked on a significant urban climate research journey through a collaboration with HKUST, featuring an upgraded mesoscale weather model to examine how city-atmosphere interactions influence the air quality of Hong Kong.
