Chen Fahu (; born December 1962) is a Chinese

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

and

climatologist Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...

who has served as Director of the Institute of Tibet Plateau Research of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

since 2018. He formerly served as professor and Vice President of

Lanzhou University Lanzhou University () is a major research university in Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Founded in 1909, it is one of the key universities under China's Ministry of Education (Double First Class University Plan, former Project 985 and Project 211). It ...

, and Dean of the university's College of Earth and Environment Sciences. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...

Education and career

Chen was born in December 1962 in

Danfeng County Danfeng County () is a county of Shangluo, Shaanxi, China, has an area of and a population of 300,000 as of 2004. Administrative divisions Danfeng County has 1 subdistrict and 9 towns. ;1 subdistrict * Longjuzhai () ;9 townships * Dihua () * S ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

, China. He earned his B.S. in

physical geography Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...

in 1984, his M.S. in physical geography in 1987, and his Ph.D. in

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

sciences in 1990, all from

. His doctoral advisor was academician Li Jijun. He also studied under academician

Shi Yafeng Shi Yafeng (; March 21, 1919 – February 13, 2011) was Chinese geographer and glaciologist. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was an expert on geography and glaciology, and regarded as the "Father of Chinese Glaciology" ...

. After earning his Ph.D., Chen became a lecturer in the Department of Geography of Lanzhou University and later promoted to associate professor and professor. From 1995 to 1997, he conducted

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

in England. He served as Dean of Lanzhou University's College of Earth and Environment Sciences from 1999 to 2005, and was appointed Vice President of the university in 2007, responsible for both research and the university journal. In 2018, he was transferred to Beijing to serve as Professor and Director of the Institute of Tibet Plateau Research of the

Research

Chen's research interests include

environment,

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

environmental archaeology Environmental archaeology is a sub-field of archaeology which emerged in 1970s and is the science of reconstructing the relationships between past societies and the environments they lived in. The field represents an archaeological-palaeoecologica ...

, and palaeolimnology. He proposed and demonstrated the "Westerly Climate Regime" in Asia during the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

epoch and confirmed rapid changes in Asian

monsoons A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

. In 2010, Chen and his colleague

Zhang Dongju Zhang Dongju () is a Chinese archeologist and an associate professor at the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Lanzhou University. Zhang's research determined that the Xiahe mandible found in the Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Pl ...

, his former Ph.D. student, began studying the

Xiahe mandible The Xiahe mandible (, ) is a hominin fossil jaw (mandible) discovered in Baishiya Karst Cave, located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Xiahe County, Gansu, China. By the use of palaeoproteomic analysis, it is the first confirme ...

, an unusual hominin fossil discovered in 1980 in the

Baishiya Karst Cave Baishiya Karst Cave () is a high-altitude paleoanthropological site and a Tibetan Buddhist sanctuary located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Xiahe County, Gansu, China. This karst cave is the site of the discovery of the earli ...

by a Tibetan monk. They surveyed a number of caves in the Xiahe area. As so much time had passed since its initial discovery, it took them six years to ascertain that the fossil came from the

. In 2018, Zhang led a systematic excavation of the cave and discovered numerous palaeolithic tools and animal bones bearing cut marks. In collaboration with

Jean-Jacques Hublin Jean-Jacques Hublin (born 30 November 1953) is a French paleoanthropologist. He is a professor at the Max Planck Society, Leiden University and the University of Leipzig and the founder and director of the Department of Human Evolution at the ...

at the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Plan ...

, they used palaeoproteomic analysis to confirm that the mandible belonged to the first known

Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains and consequently, most of what is known ...

outside

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, and the earliest human known to have lived on the high-altitude

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...

, dating to 160,000 years ago.

Honours and recognition

Chen received the China Youth Science and Technology Award in 1996, the National Outstanding Scientist Award in 2005, and the

State Natural Science Award The State Science and Technology Prizes () are the highest honors conferred by the national government of the People's Republic of China in science and technology, in order to recognize citizens and organizations who have made remarkable contribut ...

(Second Class) in 2007. Chen was elected an academician of the

in 2015, and of

(TWAS) in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Fahu 1962 births Living people Chinese climatologists Chinese geographers 20th-century Chinese geologists Lanzhou University alumni Lanzhou University faculty Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences People from Shangluo Scientists from Shaanxi TWAS fellows 21st-century Chinese geologists Chinese university and college faculty deans