Professor Xue Huijie, a Nanqiang Distinguished Professor at Xiamen University, has dedicated over three decades to unraveling the complexities of ocean circulation. Grounded in physical oceanography and armed with numerical models, she has made lasting contributions to the field.
Over the course of her distinguished career, Prof. Xue and her team have achieved several key breakthroughs in ocean dynamics and modeling:
1. Understanding the South China Sea circulation and boundary currents
Recognizing the unique attribute of the South China Sea as both a regional ocean and a marginal sea, Prof. Xue’s team proposed a theoretical framework for “vertical coupling of the South China Sea's three-layer circulation", which, for the first time, clearly revealed the dynamical role of the abyssal mixing in maintaining the Luzon overflow and in linking the surface, middle, and deep layer circulations in the South China Sea. They also defined the "Kuroshio intrusion index into the South China Sea", which allows quantitative evaluations of Kuroshio intrusion events and their roles in long-term variation trends of seawater properties and associated physical and biogeochemical processes in the South China Sea.
2. Developing tools for ocean front and eddy research
To analyze the complex evolution of the Gulf Stream front, Prof. Xue developed an instability analysis algorithm. This program was not only applicable to Gulf Stream research but has also been adopted by researchers from the United States, Japan, Brazil, and China, for studies on western boundary currents and coastal shelf fronts, , becoming a practical tool in the international research community.
3. Building an operational coastal ocean forecasting system
Prof. Xue led the development of the "Gulf of Maine Operational Nowcast/Forecast System". As one of the first few systems capable of providing operational forecasts of water level, ocean currents, and temperature fields, it has been widely applied: it not only assists environmental protection departments in tracking the trajectory of chemical spills but also provides data for studies on fish egg and larval transport as well as population connectivity, truly enabling research outcomes to serve practical needs.
Currently, Prof. Xue Huijie's team continues to pursue several key research directions: coastal and marginal sea dynamics, theoretical and numerical studies of western boundary currents and eddies, coastal ocean prediction and application, bio-physical coupled models, and regional air-sea interactions. These directions cover multi-scale ocean dynamics, ranging from estuaries, shelves, to open oceans, and from short-term processes to long-term changes, essential for advancing scientific understanding of the marine system and climate change.
For more information, please visit Prof. Xue’s website https://coeoa.xmu.edu.cn/t/XHJ/ or contact her at hjxue@xmu.edu.cn
Biography: Xue Huijie received her PhD Degree from Princeton University in 1991. . Afterward, she spent three years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a Research Assistant Professor. In 1994, she joined the University of Maine as a faculty member, where she was promoted from Assistant Professor to tenured Full Professor, gaining extensive expertise in ocean dynamics and modeling. In 2013, she concurrently served as a senior scientist at the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shifting her research focus to China seas. In the same year, she was selected for the National Innovative Talent Program. In October 2021, Prof. Xue Huijie retired from the University of Maine and joined Xiamen University as a Nanqiang Distinguished Professor, where she continues to inspire marine science education and research.
