Shih-Chieh Kao

Bio

Dr. Shih-Chieh Kao is a Senior Research Staff and Group Leader of the Water Resource Science and Engineering Group within the Environmental Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He also serves as the Program Manager of the ORNL Water Power Program (https://www.ornl.gov/waterpower) that oversees dozens of research projects supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). His areas of research include high-performance computing, hydrologic modeling, flood simulation, hydro-climate impact assessment, and hydropower resource evaluation. He is the principal investigator of the DOE WPTO “Effects of Climate Change on Federal Hydropower – SECURE Water Act Section 9505 Assessment” project since 2011, and also one creator of the TRITON inundation model (https://triton.ornl.gov) and Dayflow dataset (https://hydrosource.ornl.gov/dataset/dayflow-V1). Kao has been a frequent reviewer for over 20 scientific/engineering journals. He received the 2008 Purdue Civil Engineering Best Dissertation Award, 2009 Journal of Hydrologic Engineering Outstanding Reviewer Award, 2013 ICSH Statistical Hydrology Best Paper Award, 2020 Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing Best Paper Award, and was named Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers-Environmental & Water Resources Institute in 2023.  Kao is also serving as a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study committee member that will consider approaches to modernize probable maximum precipitation estimates in a changing climate (https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/modernizing-probable-maximum…).

Publications