Rate My Professor Chu-Lin Cheng

Chu-Lin Cheng is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences and the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, specializing in Geoscience with a focus on hydrogeology. He holds a B.S. in Earth Science and an M.S. in Hydrogeology from National Cheng Kung University (1996 and 1998), an M.S. in Water Resources and Geology from Iowa State University (2006), and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science/Engineering from Iowa State University (2009). Cheng completed postdoctoral research in water and energy resources at the University of Tennessee (2010-2014) and a joint postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2012-2014). His professional career includes serving as a Hydrogeological Engineer at Taiwan Tainan Hydraulic Laboratory (1999-2002), Assistant Professor of Geology and Civil Engineering at UT-Pan American (2014-2015), Assistant Professor at UTRGV (2015-2020), and Associate Professor since 2020.

Cheng's research interests encompass water resources research, multiphase flow and contaminant transport in porous media, vadose zone hydrology, groundwater-surface water interactions, climate-smart water management for drought and flood resilience, geoenergy resources, and non-destructive testing applications in environmental systems. He has secured grants from NSF, DOE, USDA, NASA, and EPA/NADB, including the NSF-funded SHIP-GEO project, DOE South Texas Industrial Assessment Center, and ongoing projects such as DOE greenhouse gas flux studies (2022-2025), USDA irrigation infrastructure (2023-2026), NASA remote-sensing education (2023-2026), EPA stormwater management (2024-2026), and NSF water quality initiatives (2026-2030). Key publications include 'Neutron Imaging of Hydrogen-Rich Fluids in Geomaterials and Engineered Porous Media: A review' (Earth-Science Reviews, 2014), 'Rapid imbibition of water in fractures within unsaturated sedimentary rock' (Advances in Water Resources, 2015), 'Average Soil Water Retention Curves Measured by Neutron Radiography' (Soil Science Society of America Journal, 2012), and 'Permeation of Gasoline through Ductile Iron Pipe Gaskets in Water Mains' (Journal of American Water Works Association, 2012). Cheng has received the NSF-NAGT Early Career Travel Support (2015), SIAM-NSF Early Career Travel Award (2015), and participated in the Faculty Research Development Institute (2017). He supervises M.S. and Ph.D. students, reviews for journals such as Advances in Water Resources and Geoderma, and has presented at conferences including GSA and SIAM.