Dr. LUO Ya-Wei is an associate professor of oceanography at the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science. He joined Xiamen University in 2013 after several years of postdoctoral experience at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry. Before that, he obtained his PhD in ecology from a joint program between Brown University and the Marine Biological Laboratory. Dr. Luo has a multidisciplinary background, also holding a master’s degree in atmospheric physics from Peking University and a Bachelor’s degree in fisheries from Ocean University of China.
Dr. Luo’s research interests lie in “marine microbial biogeochemistry,” which looks at how microbial (mostly single-celled) organisms interact with ocean environments to mediate recycling of biogenic elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, and, in a broader context, how these processes can impact the global climate. Particularly, his research focuses on diazotrophic bacteria in mediating N2 fixation, heterotrophic bacteria in interacting with dissolved organic carbon, and viruses in controlling bacteria death in the ocean.
Unlike most other scientists in this area, Dr. Luo does most of his work on computers, including syntheses and analyses of observational and laboratory data using statistical or machine learning methods, and constructing numerical models to simulate marine systems in different scales.
Dr. Luo established the first oceanic N2 fixation database (Earth System Science Data 4:47-73) which has been widely used by other scientists. It is ranked as a “highly cited paper” by the Web of Science. At MEL, Dr. Luo is able to work with field- or laboratory-based scientists to quantitatively improve his findings. For instance, he recently collaborated with Dr. Dalin Shi, a professor at MEL, and constructed a single-cell level model for a globally important oceanic N2 fixer, Trichodesmium, simulating optimal allocation of cellular energy and iron. The study provides additional quantitative evidence that the N2 fixer responds negatively to ocean acidification: the cellular energy saved from increasing CO2 is very small compared to the negative effects from lowered pH. By further running the single-cell model with CO2vand pH predicted by Earth system models, it estimates that under a RCP 8.5 scenario the N2-fixing potential of Trichodesmium can decrease by 27% in the global ocean by end of this century (Nature Communications 10:1521).
Dr. Luo actively contributes to the various of services MEL provides. He is the Local Organization Committee Chair of the Fifth Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Science (XMAS), a biannual conference series which has grown to become one of the Asia’s largest conferences in oceanography (/conference/4xmas/). He is the Committee Chair of MEL’s Undergraduate Research Internship Program, in which undergraduate students from the around the world are selected each summer to conduct scientific trainings at MEL (/URF/index.asp). Dr. Luo is also the vice Chair of the Department of Marine Biology and Biotechnology in managing the department’s undergraduate education. He leads the College of Ocean and Earth Sciences (COE) Honors Program, in which special courses and laboratory opportunities are arranged for <10% of COE’s undergraduate students who have strong interests in scientific research.
For more information please contact Dr. Luo (ywluo@xmu.edu.cn) or visit his webpage:http:/teacherfile.asp?tid=440
