Dr. Zhuangji Wang

Associate Research Scientist (2024-2025)

Postdoctoral Researcher (2018-2024)

Dr. Zhuangji ("Z") Wang was a postdoc (2018-2024) and then Assistant Research Scientist (2024-2025) in the Agroecology Lab at University of Maryland, College Park and a visiting scientist in the Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory at USDA-ARS, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Z grew up in a metropolitan area in China, but fell in love with agriculture in his twenties. Z earned his B.S. in 2012 at China Agricultural University, majored in Resource and Environmental Science. After that, he travelled across the world and obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. in 2015 and 2017 at Iowa State University, with major in Soil Science (Soil Physics) and minors in Applied Mathematics (Ph.D.) and Statistics (M.S.). Z's research interests include sensor development and data interpretation, numerical technologies in soil-plant-atmosphere simulations, and crop growth modeling. During these years, Z developed models for soil surface runoff, diffusive root growth, and residue mulch impacts on heat and water transfer within MAIZSIM-2DSOIL simulation package. He developed new paradigms for cereal grass growth simulations, including a cereal rye model, RyeSim, and a wheat model, WheatSim. He also brought machine learning ideas into soil moisture sensor data analysis, which led to TDR-CNN and TDR-Transformer model packages. Z is currently working at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University and continues his research in agriculture and ecology.