ZIYAN (JESSICA) CHU
(203)-598-8614
jessicaczy@gmail.com
EDUCATION
• Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT, US. Master of Environment
Science, May 2010.
• Concentration: Environmental Economics, Renewable Energy Economics, and Urban Planning
• Zhejiang University, College of Life Sciences, China. Master of Ecology, June 2008.
• Concentration: Climate Change, Biostatistics
• Zhejiang University of Technology, College of Biological and Environmental Engineering, China.
Bachelor of Biological Technology, June 2006.
• Concentration: Biological Pharmacy, Genetics, Microorganisms
RELEVANT COURSEWORK
• Modeling Geographic Space, Remote Sensing, Microeconomics, Econometrics II, Multivariate Statistic
Analysis, Economics of the Environment, Environment Law and Policy, Green Business Operations
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Research Associate, Resources for the Future, Washington DC, US, Nov 2014 –Current
• Worked as a Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) coordinator helping all the related projects and took
in charge of the development of the software and hardware
Senior Research Assistant, Resources for the Future, Washington DC, US, May 2013-Current
• Played a role as a Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) coordinator participating annual user
conferences of the software and helping the hardware development on site to meet the requirements
• Independently managed multiple projects including flooding damage from climate change, impact on water
quality from shale gas development, forest conservation targeting in Mesoamerica and quantitative
modeling of CAA using BenMap
• Finished the project of impact on water quality from shale gas development in Pennsylvania and published
a paper on PNAS as a coauthor
Research Assistant, Resources for the Future, Washington DC, US, May 2011-May 2013
• Worked with a team of experienced economists and scientists on economic research related to
environmental, human health and energy policy
• Gained extensive technical skills including programming in Python and statistical packages such as Matlab
and STATA, cleaning and analyzing large datasets and statistical estimation
Research Assistant, Yale University, New Haven, CT, US. June 2010-May 2011
• Analyzed remote sensing images including Landsat, Aster, MODIS with ENVI
• Detected seasonal trends in surface variables (i.e. Albedo, temperature) in Connecticut and Arizona
• Coordinated multi-projects and maintained group website
Consultant, Curtis Packaging Corp., Sandy Hook, CT, US. February-May 2010.
• Helped Curtis to meet the requirement according to ISO14001 and get certified
• Finished the gap assessment according to the requirements of ISO14001
• Developed a questionnaire as a tool to identify environmental aspects (i.e. energy usage) at Curtis
Consultant, United Technologies Corp., US, September-December 2009
• Executed Life Cycle Analysis aim to minimize the Land Use Impact of UTC’s products
• Established scope and approach to evaluate the Land Use Impact from the design stage
• Set a criteria for Land Use Impact indicators for UTC's products
Researcher, U.S. Geological Survey, South Dakota, US, June-September 2009
• Participated in US Carbon Trend Project, and managed the database for Mid-Continent Intensive, Alaska,
Beaver Creek
• Participated in wetland model construction, and managed the National Wetland Index data for Prairie
Pothole Region
• Managed GPP data for cropland in Iowa which designed to investigate the contribution of agriculture to
carbon sequestration in Iowa
PUBLICATIONS
• Shih, Jhih-Shyang, James E. Saiers, Shimon C. Anisfeld, Ziyan Chu et al. “Wastewater Characteristics
from Marcellus Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania”, Environmental science & technology. 49 (16):
9557-9565.
• Margaret Walls, Carolyn Kousky, and Ziyan Chu. 2015. “Is What You See What You Get? The Value of
Natural Landscape Views,” Land Economics. 91(1): 1-19.
• Olmstead, S., L. Muehlenbachs, J. Shih, Z. Chu, and A. Krupnick. 2013. “Shale Gas Development Impacts
on Surface Water Quality in Pennsylvania.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110
(13):4962−4967.
• Carolyn Kousky, Margaret Walls, and Ziyan Chu, “Measuring Resilience to Climate Change: The Benefits
of Forest Conservation in the Floodplain,” Paper prepared for Pinchot Institute for Conservation
Conference: Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene, Washington, DC, September 2013.
• Ziyan Chu et al. 2010. “Leaf respiration/photosynthesis relationship and variation: an investigation of 39
woody and herbaceous species in east subtropical China”. Trees. 25 (2): 301-310.
• Jun Zhang, Ziyan Chu et al. 2008. “TRIPLEX model testing and application for predicting forest growth
and biomass production in the subtropical forest zone of China’s Zhejiang province”. Ecological
Modelling. 219: 264-275.
• Ziyan Chu et al. 2006. “Progresses of Chemokine SDF-1 and CXCR4”. Journal of Biology 23(1): 11-13.
WORK IN PROGRESS
• Blackman, Allen, Ziyan Chu, Leonard Goff, and Juha Siikamäki. “Two Birds with One Stone? Targeting
Forest Conservation for Multiple Benefits”. (in progress)
• Muehlenbachs, Lucija, Staubli Stefan, and Ziyan Chu. “The Effect of Hydraulic Fracturing Truck Traffic
on Vehicle Crashes”. (in progress)
• Carolyn Kousky, Margaret Walls, and Ziyan Chu. “Changing Flood Risks and Residential Development in
the Floodplain”
• Carolyn Kousky, Margaret Walls, and Ziyan Chu. “Economics of Climate Adaptation in the Floodplain”
• Hei Sing Chan and Ziyan Chu. “Land Use Pattern and the Economic Cost of Climate Change on
Agriculture”
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
• Determining upstream/downstream spatial distribution among point sources: Comparison of GIS-based
methods, ESRI User Conference, San Diego, CA, July 2013
SKILLS
• Experimental Skills: Licor-6400, ADC-LCA apparatus
• Computer Skills: Geographic Information System, Remote Sensing, Global Positioning System, Google
Earth, Matlab, STATA, SAS, R, SPSS, Python Script, Photoshop, Visual Basic, SimaPro, and Microsoft
Office, EVIEWS (preliminary)
• Languages: Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English
REFERENCE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST