Dr. Zhaoxia Pu is a professor of atmospheric sciences, a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and Royal Meteorological Society, and a member of NOAA Science Advisory Board. Her research interests include numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, numerical modeling, and predictability, with specific topics on satellite and radar data assimilation, mesoscale severe weather systems, earth system modeling and coupled land-atmosphere data assimilation, observing system simulation experiments, targeting weather observations, atmospheric boundary layers over complex terrain, and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in NWP and climate forecasting. Before joining the faculty at the University of Utah in 2004, she worked as a graduate student fellow (1993-1996) and a postdoctoral researcher (1997-1998) at the NOAA NCEP Environmental Modeling Center in Washington, DC area and as a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland during 1998-2004.

Dr. Pu has extensive experience collaborating with NOAA, NASA, DOE, ONR, and NSF and has been carrying out over 30 research projects. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and participated in over ten major field programs. In recent years, she has been deeply involved in NOAA’s Hurricane Forecasting Improvement Program, Next-Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS), and Unified Forecasting System (UFS) programs. More importantly, her research projects have also included substantial components in research to operational transition. In addition, Dr. Pu has served as a science team member for NASA satellite missions and recent field campaigns. She is also the leader of the current NSF-funded field campaign and science project of "Cold fog amongst complex terrain (CFACT)."

Dr. Pu has served as a member of numerous national and international science teams and advisory boards, review panels, editorial boards.

Dr. Pu teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses.She has supervised to graduate 9 M.S. and 12 Ph.D. students since 2007. She received an Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award from the College of Mines and Earth Sciences, University of Utah in 2012.