Assistant Professor Haochen Li was a recipient of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s 2026 William T. Miles MD Memorial Award for Community Service for his work on the Hurricane Helene Recovery Team.
Named for the late William T. Miles, a respected medical doctor, the award recognizes significant contributions and service to the Knoxville community.
Li was honored for his work developing a high-resolution hydrodynamic flood engine that can map Tennessee’s flood risk at a meter-scale level. The system allowed Li to provide robust and actionable data to support the recovery and rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“I am incredibly grateful to receive the William T. Miles MD Memorial Award,” Li said. “While it is a profound personal honor, I truly view this as a recognition of our entire Hurricane Helene Recovery Team. As researchers, our goal is always to create tools that have a direct impact, so to have our group’s work acknowledged by the UTIA in this way is incredibly rewarding.”
Li joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty in 2022. His lab leverages and integrates physical modeling, first-principles simulations, and AI techniques to address challenging issues in the urban water cycle and sustainable development.
Li was recognized for his award at a luncheon on August 4 at the Agriculture and Natural Resources Building.
“I want to specifically acknowledge our former group member, Jeffrey Lind. As an Erwin native, Jeffrey is the one who initially brought this critical issue to our attention, and his perspective was the driving force behind this project,” Li said. “Furthermore, developing our hydrodynamic flood engine simply would not have been possible without the direct funding support of the UT AI Tennessee Initiative, alongside the invaluable backing of the Institute for Climate and Community Resilience.”
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Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])