Yafang Cheng
Curriculum Vitae
Yafang Cheng was born in 1979 in Wuhan, China. She studied Environmental Sciences and Aerosol Physics in Wuhan and Beijing, China, and Leipzig, Germany. In 2007, she completed her doctorate in Natural Sciences from Peking University. Following her doctoral studies, she returned to the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig as a postdoctoral researcher (2007 to 2009) followed by a position at the University of Iowa (2009 to 2011). From 2011 to 2013, She held an assistant professorship at Peking University (2011-2013). In 2013, Yafang Cheng joined the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, leading an independent Minerva Research Group from 2014 to 2024. In 2024, she was appointed Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. Additionally, since 2023, she has held a guest professorship at Peking University.
Research Interests
Yafang Cheng develops and integrates advanced experimental methodologies, multi-scale modeling approaches, and machine learning techniques to advance the fundamental theories of the physical chemistry of nanoparticles and microdroplets. Her research aims to achieve a mechanistic understanding and quantitative prediction of aerosol processes and their impacts on air quality, public health and climate.
Selected Awards
Yafang Cheng’s work and ideas are widely recognized by internationally prestigious awards and honors, including the Copernicus Medal (2025) by the European Geosciences Union (EGU), Joanne Simpson Medal (2022) and Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award (2021) by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Top 10 Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2021 in Physical Sciences by the Falling Walls Foundation, and the Schmauss Award (2020) by the German Association for Aerosol Research. She is also an elected Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE), a Fellow of the AGU and American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Editor-in-Chief of the AGU flagship journal JGR-Atmospheres.