Biography
Yanan (Nancy) Li is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University. As a physical geographer, Nancy's research interests include glacial geomorphology, biogeography, past climate change, and geomorphometry. She received both her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2011 and 2015, respectively. She completed her B.S. degree in Geosciences at Beijing Normal University (China) in 2008. She focused on dendrochronology (tree-ring analysis) during the M.S. program, and her master's thesis is titled “Dendroclimatic analysis of climate oscillations for the southeastern US from tree-ring network data”. Continued with her doctoral program, Nancy expanded her study to geomorphology and geospatial skills. Her doctoral dissertation research is titled “Timing and Extent of the Little Ice Age Glacial Advances in Central-Eastern Tian Shan, China”. She has received several grants and awards at department, university, and national levels, including the National Geographic Young Explorers Grant and the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. She has published twenty-one peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals such as Progress in Physical Geography, Quaternary Science Reviews, Annals of Glaciology, Environmental Research Letters, and Annals of American Association of Geographers.
Research Interests
My long-term research and scholarly interests are three folds: 1) a holistic understanding of how glaciers respond to the changing climate and consequently influence other geomorphic processes and human society; 2) the application of remotely sensed data (satellites, aerial photographs, and drones) in studying mountain environments; and 3) climate history in Texas and the western US in general based on both observational data and natural proxy data.
Teaching Interests
geomorphology, field methods, weather and climate, global climate change