About
Cong Gao is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Hurricane Hazards and Risk Analysis Group (PI: Prof. Ning Lin) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University.
Research Interests
- How does the environment affect tropical cyclones (TCs)?
- How can the TC-environment relationship be applied to hazard and risk analysis?
- What policies should be developed to improve TCs preparedness?
From Henan to Shanghai to Princeton
I was born and raised in central China’s Henan Province, far from the ocean. Before coming to Princeton, I spent more than a decade in Shanghai, where coastal life makes the presence of typhoons feel close and real. I still remember how Typhoon Bebinca (2024), the first typhoon to make landfall in Shanghai since 1949, made the risks tangible for a city built around dense infrastructure and constant movement. In 2021, Typhoon In-Fa was linked to the record-breaking rainfall in Zhengzhou, turning what many people assume is a coastal hazard into a direct threat for an inland region like my hometown. In the United States, I saw the same lesson echoed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when its landfall in New Jersey caused widespread disruption and damage. Taken together, these experiences have shaped my motivation to understand tropical cyclones and their impacts.