Feng is from the Institute of Desertification Studies from the Chinese Academy of Forestry, located in Beijing, China. He is currently a visiting fellow within the Ecohydrology Lab. His research focuses on 3D structure and behavior of plants and the interactions between plant growth and its surroundings. He is interested in the ecological and geographical processes that govern ecological population, communities, ecosystem, and landscape. His approach is to develop, calibrate and test mathematical models to explain ecological structures. He is also interested in plant isotope fractionation, isotope hydrology application in ecology field, especially in dryland ecosystems.

Lately, Feng has been concentrating his work on a new vegetation model. His goal is to scale up the so called Functional and Structural Plant Model (FSPM), developed at the individual scale. The new model will be used to estimate the carbon storage of a specific pine forest, and answer the following questions: How will vegetation respond to climate change, eg. precipitation, temperature? What patterns and distribution are there under future climate predictions?

The picture on the left was taken in the Kumtag Desert, located in Northwestern China. Feng is standing on the top of one of the so-called feather-like sand dunes.