Hanqin Tian

Hanqin Tian is Institute Professor of Global Sustainability and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College. He serves as the Inaugural Director of the Center for Earth System Science and Global Sustainability (CES³) and Director of the Global Carbon Project–Boston Office. Tian is an internationally recognized leader in Earth system science whose research has transformed understanding of the interactions among climate change, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, and human activities.

Over the past three decades, he has pioneered the integration of ecosystem modeling and Earth system science to quantify the global dynamics of carbon, nitrogen, water, and greenhouse gases. He is particularly known for developing the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM), which has been widely applied to investigate climate–ecosystem feedbacks, land-use change, food systems, and greenhouse gas emissions. His research has provided important scientific foundations for international assessments of global carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide budgets and has informed climate and sustainability policies worldwide.

Tian has authored more than 500 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Nature, Science, PNAS, and Science Advances, and is consistently recognized among the world's most highly cited researchers. He has held leadership roles in major international initiatives, including the Global Nitrous Oxide Budget and Global Terrestrial Nitrogen Model Intercomparison Project (NMIP).

A Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Ecological Society of America, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, Tian received Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (Brainy Award), AGU Bert Bolin Global Environmental Change Award, and Humboldt Research Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Earth system science and global sustainability.