Ph.D., Texas A&M University
B.Sc. & M.Sc., Ocean University of China

2021 - 2022 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
2019 - 2021 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford University

Research interests:
Ocean submesoscale processes; Near-inertial waves; Coastal ocean dynamics; Ocean mixing; Geophysical fluid dynamics

Prospective students:
I am looking for Ph.D. and Master students with a strong background in physical oceanography, who are interested in the topics above. Contact me directly if interested.

New postdoc opportunity:
https://soo.sjtu.edu.cn/szRecruitment/5976.html
https://join.sjtu.edu.cn/Admin/QsPreview.aspx?qsid=5b090a071bd0460cb3ef4a0aaceb729d

Hetland, Robert D., Lixin Qu*, and Kyle Hinson. "Frontal maintenance in submesoscale flows." Journal of Physical Oceanography. Submitted.

Zu, Tingting, Zhongya Cai, Lixin Qu*, Robert D. Hetland, Caijing Huang, Lin Luo, and Dongxiao Wang*. "Enhanced cross-shelf exchange by the eddies associated with plume front." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. Submitted.

Thomas, Leif N.*, James N. Moum, Lixin Qu, James P. Hilditch, Eric Kunze, Luc Rainville, Craig M. Lee. "Blocked drainpipes and smoking chimneys--discovery of new near-inertial wave phenomena in anticyclones." Oceanography. In press.

Schlichting, Dylan*, Lixin Qu*, Daijiro Kobashi, and Robert D. Hetland. "Quantification of physical and numerical mixing in a coastal ocean model using salinity variance budgets." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 15, no. 4 (2023): e2022MS003380.

Qu, Lixin*, Leif N. Thomas*, Aaron F. Wienkers, Robert D. Hetland, Daijiro Kobashi, John R. Taylor, Fucent Hsuan Wei Hsu, Jennifer A. MacKinnon, R. Kipp Shearman, and Jonathan D. Nash. "Rapid vertical exchange at fronts in the Northern Gulf of Mexico." Nature Communications 13, no. 1 (2022): 5624. (Top 25 Nature Communications Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Article of 2022. Link: https://www.nature.com/collections/hdbgideegb)

Qu, Lixin, Robert D. Hetland*, and Dylan Schlichting. "Mixing pathways in simple box models." Journal of Physical Oceanography 52, no. 11 (2022): 2761-2772.

Qu, Lixin*, Leif N. Thomas, Robert D. Hetland, and Daijiro Kobashi. "Mixing Driven by Critical Reflection of Near-Inertial Waves over the Texas–Louisiana Shelf." Journal of Physical Oceanography 52, no. 11 (2022): 2891-2906.

Qu, Lixin*, Leif N. Thomas, and Jonathan Gula. "Bottom mixing enhanced by tropical storm-generated near-inertial waves entering critical layers in the Straits of Florida." Geophysical Research Letters 48, no. 15 (2021): e2021GL093773.

Qu, Lixin*, Leif N. Thomas, and Robert D. Hetland. "Near-inertial-wave critical layers over sloping bathymetry." Journal of Physical Oceanography 51, no. 6 (2021): 1737-1756.

Thyng, Kristen M.*, Daijiro Kobashi, Veronica Ruiz-Xomchuk, Lixin Qu, Xu Chen, and Robert D. Hetland. "Performance of offline passive tracer advection in the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS; v3. 6, revision 904)." Geoscientific Model Development 14, no. 1 (2021): 391-407.

Ruiz-Xomchuk, Veronica*, Robert D. Hetland, and Lixin Qu. "Small-Scale Variability of Bottom Oxygen in the Northern Gulf of Mexico." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 126, no. 1 (2021): e2020JC016279.

Qu, Lixin*, and Robert D. Hetland. "Nongeostrophic baroclinic instability over sloping bathymetry: Buoyant flow regime." Journal of Physical Oceanography 50, no. 7 (2020): 1937-1956.

Qu, Lixin*, and Robert D. Hetland. "Temporal resolution of wind forcing required for river plume simulations." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124, no. 3 (2019): 1459-1473.

Qu, Lixin, Xiaopei Lin*, Robert D. Hetland, and Jingsong Guo. "The asymmetric continental shelf wave in response to the synoptic wind burst in a semienclosed double-shelf basin." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123, no. 1 (2018): 131-148.

Ocean mixing
Geophysical fluid dynamics
Introduction to oceanographic research

Advisory Panel Member, North Pacific Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NPCOOS), North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES)
Review Editor, Frontiers in Marine Science