About
I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, working with Associate Professor Fei Xunchang at the intersection of waste management, climate change, and One Health. I investigate solid waste biogeochemistry, pollutant release, and greenhouse gas emission mechanisms to inform sustainable waste management. I have published 18 papers in leading journals, including sole-first-author articles in Nature Sustainability and One Earth, and co-authored articles in Nature Climate Change, Nature Reviews Materials, and Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
My research has been adopted by Climate TRACE, the world's largest independent greenhouse gas emissions inventory. I also contributed to the development of WasteMAP with RMI, a global decision-support platform supporting waste methane assessment and mitigation planning in countries including the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, and Nigeria. My findings also inform policy assessments by the OECD and the U.S. Department of Energy.
My sole-first-author Nature Sustainability paper was one of only 25 studies selected worldwide for the 2026 Frontiers Planet Prize: Singapore's only selected study and the only one focused on solid waste globally. I also received the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, a highly selective China Scholarship Council honour with approximately 650 recipients worldwide.
Selected Publications
View All →Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide
Yao Wang, M. Fang, Z. Lou, H. He, Y. Guo, X. Pi, Y. J. Wang, K. Yin†, Xunchang Fei†
Nature Sustainability, 2024
Reveals geographically uneven underestimation of landfill methane emissions and identifies mitigation priorities.
Biogeochemical dynamics of major elements in municipal solid waste landfills can induce health risks for nearly 1 billion people
Yao Wang, C. Zhou, H. Zhang, S. Ma, Z. Lou, L. Raskin, S. Skerlos, F. Coulon, D. Zekkos, A. Hussain, V. Yadav, G. Lisak, M. Fang, K. Yin, H. He, Yuan Wang, Xunchang Fei†
One Earth, 2025
Quantifies landfill biogeochemical dynamics and their implications for human health risks at global scale.
Underestimated methane emissions from solid waste disposal sites reveal missed greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities
Yao Wang, C. Zhou, Z. Lou, H. Zhang, A. Hussain, L. Zhan, K. Yin, M. Fang, Xunchang Fei†
Engineering, 2024
Connects underestimated methane from disposal sites with missed greenhouse-gas mitigation opportunities.
Property changes of conventional plastic waste mixed with municipal solid waste after 10-year degradation experiments simulating landfill conditions
Yao Wang, X. Lu, Xunchang Fei†
Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, 2021
Investigates long-term property changes of plastic waste under simulated landfill degradation conditions.
Underappreciated majority of solid waste: insufficient data and unclear impacts
Yao Wang, K. Yin, M. Fang, Xunchang Fei†
The Innovation, 2025
Highlights data gaps and uncertain impacts for the majority of solid waste streams.