SUMMARY BIO

Wei Xia joined Dalian University of Technology as a full professor in June 2025. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2020. Following his doctoral studies, Wei gained invaluable experience, spending two years as a Research Fellow at NUS and an additional eight months as a Senior AI Researcher at Tencent, one of the world's largest multimedia technology powerhouses, akin to Meta and Google. After Tencent, he spent two years as a Research Fellow at POLIMI in Italy. His research focuses on the development and management of expansive water resources systems. As part of this analysis, he has developed successful optimization algorithms for computationally expensive hydrologic simulation models. The tools he developed involve hydrologic science, operations research, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing with the goal to find cost-effective and robust solutions for water resources and environmental issues. Wei was awarded the Kamide Early Career Lecture Award by the Asian Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) in 2023.

We are actively recruiting postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, and master's students with strong backgrounds in hydrology, mathematics, computer science, management science, or related disciplines. If you are passionate about cutting-edge research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and academic excellence, we invite you to apply! Interested candidates are welcome to submit their CV (including research interests, publications, and academic records) via email: xiawei@dlut.edu.cn / xiawei@u.nus.edu 

RESEARCH TOPICS

Water resources management, Flooding management, Surface water quality modelling, Identification and stochastic parameter estimation, Global surrogate optimization, Deep learning & Reinforcement learning in hydrology, High-performance computing.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., National University of Singapore, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2020 (Advisor: Distinguished Prof. Christine Ann Shoemaker)

B.S., Wuhan University, Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering, 2016

WORKING EXPERIENCE

Politecnico di Milano, Italy,  Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Advisor: Prof. Andrea Castelletti), May 2023 – May 2025 

National University of Singapore, Singapore, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dec 2022 – Jun 2023

Tencent, Singapore, Senior Researcher (Machine Learning Algorithm Track), May 2022 – Nov 2022

National University of Singapore, Singapore, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sep 2020 – May 2022

PROJECT EXPERIENCE

“Energy and Environmental Sustainability Solutions for Megacities (E2S2)” subproject: “Detection, Assessment and Modelling of Emerging Contaminants in the Urban Environment”, joint collaborative programme between Shanghai Jiao Tong University and National University of Singapore under the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme, 2018-2022. (Main Participate; Collaborators: Shanghai Jiaotong University, Singapore PUB, Singapore NEA)

“Water Resources System Safe Operating Space in a Changing Climate and Society”, funded under Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment of Horizon Europe programme, 2022-2026. (Main Participate; Collaborators: Internationales Institut Fuer Angewandte Systemanalyse (IIASA), Universiteit Utrecht, Universitat Politecnica De Valencia, Forschungsverbund Berlin Ev, Futurewater Sl, Geoecomar, Southern Institute Of Water Resources Planning, Eutema Research Services Gmbh, EAWAG)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Reviewer of Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology, Environmental Modelling and Software, Environmental Science & Technology, Optimization and Engineering, Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering

Member of AGU, AOGS, EGU, INFORMS

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (*Corresponding author)

Xia, W., Shoemaker, C. A.*, Akhtar, T., & Nguyen, M. T. (2021). Efficient parallel surrogate optimization algorithm and framework with application to parameter calibration of computationally expensive three-dimensional hydrodynamic lake PDE models. Environmental Modelling & Software, 135, 104910. (JCR-Q1; IF: 5.471)

Xia, W., & Shoemaker, C. A.* (2021). GOPS: efficient RBF surrogate global optimization algorithm with high dimensions and many parallel processors including application to multimodal water quality PDE model calibration. Optimization and Engineering, 22, 2741–2777. (JCR-Q2; IF: 2.619)

Xia, W., & Shoemaker, C. A.* (2021). Improving the Speed of Global Parallel Optimization on PDE Models with Processor Affinity Scheduling. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 37, 279-299. (JCR-Q1; IF: 10.066)

Xia, W.*, & Shoemaker, C. A. (2022). A Repetitive Parameterization and Optimization Strategy for the Calibration of Complex and Computationally Expensive Process-based Models with Application to a 3D Water Quality Model of a Tropical Reservoir. Water Resources Research, 58(5), e2021WR031054. (JCR-Q1; IF: 6.159)

Lu, W., Xia, W.*, & Shoemaker, C. A. (2022). Surrogate Global Optimization for Identifying Cost-Effective Green Infrastructure for Urban Flood Control with a Computationally Expensive Inundation Model. Water Resources Research, 58(4), e2021WR030928 (JCR-Q1; IF: 6.159)

Xia, W.*, Akhtar, T.，Shoemaker C. A. (2022). A Novel Objective Function DYNO for Automatic Multivariable Calibration of 3D Lake Models. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26(13), 3651-3671. (JCR-Q1; IF: 6.617)

Cheng, Y., Xia, W., Matteo, D., & Shoemaker, C. A. (2022). A framework to calibrate ecosystem demography models within Earth system models using parallel surrogate global optimization. Water Resources Research, 58, e2022WR032945. (JCR-Q1; IF: 6.159)

Wei, G., Xia, W.*, He, B., & Shoemaker, C. A. (2024). Quick large-scale spatiotemporal flood inundation computation using integrated Encoder-Decoder LSTM with time distributed spatial output models. Journal of Hydrology, 634, 130993. (JCR-Q1; IF: 6.4)

Xia, W.*, Akhtar, T., Lu, W., & Shoemaker, C. A. (2024). Enhanced watershed model evaluation incorporating hydrologic signatures and consistency within efficient surrogate multi-objective optimization. Environmental Modelling & Software, 175, 105983. (JCR-Q1; IF: 5.471)

Xia, W.*, Ilija Ilievski, Shoemaker, C. A. (2024). Enhancing algal bloom forecasting: A novel framework for machine learning performance evaluation during periods of special temporal patterns. Environmental Modelling & Software, 180, 106164. (JCR-Q1; IF: 5.471)

Xia, W.*, Lu, W., Zhang, C., & Shoemaker, C. A. (2025). Asynchronous parallel surrogate optimization aided neural network design with variable evaluation runtime for streamflow and pollutant forecast. Journal of Hydrology, 134378. (JCR-Q1; IF: 6.4)