Zhendan Cao

Zhendan Cao is a Water Program intern at SEI US, based in the Davis office in California. As an intern, he supports hydrologic modelling and analysis for two key projects: identifying appropriate geospatial models to represent groundwater contamination risks related to hydrocarbon development in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta region and contributing to national-scale groundwater storage evaluation using GRACE satellite data in Bolivia.

He is currently completing his PhD in Hydrologic Sciences at the University of California, Davis, where his research focuses on physically based modelling of nitrate transport in California’s Central Valley to inform groundwater quality regulations. He has advanced training in numerical methods for solving partial differential equations and applies these techniques to model subsurface flow and contaminant transport.

Zhendan also brings strong skills in statistics and data analysis, including regression analysis, non-parametric statistics, stochastic process and harmonic analysis. He is proficient in Python, MATLAB, R, and GIS platforms such as ArcGIS and QGIS.

He is passionate about using computational tools and science-based analysis to address pressing environmental challenges. He looks forward to contributing to SEI’s mission of connecting research with policy and promoting sustainable development.