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Staff Profile

Xiaobin Qiu

Research Assistant / Associate

  • Email: xiaobin.qiu@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Engineering, Cassie Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Background

Xiaobin Qiu is a Research Assistant / Associate in the Climate+ Co-Centre at Newcastle University, working on the Islands of Britain and Ireland Climate Dataset project. He recently completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at Newcastle University.

He holds a BSc in Resources, Environment and Urban Planning and an MEng in Hydraulic Engineering from Sun Yat-Sen University. His academic training is complemented by over six years of professional experience in engineering consultancy in China, where he worked on infrastructure planning, technical assessment, and cost evaluation. He holds several professional qualifications, including Certified Construction Engineer, Certified Cost Engineer, Hydraulic Engineer, and Legal Professional Qualification Certificate (China).

Research

Xiaobin’s research focuses on radar rainfall quality control, the development of high-resolution precipitation datasets, and extreme rainfall analysis over Great Britain. During his PhD, he developed a comprehensive radar rainfall quality control framework and a radar–gauge blended rainfall dataset, alongside systematic analysis of extreme rainfall across Great Britain. A key outcome of this work is the GRaD-GB (1H1K) Gauge–Radar Precipitation Dataset, the first open-access hourly, 1 km resolution blended rainfall dataset for Great Britain. At the same time, he has also contributed to the CAMELS-UK project, supporting the generation of catchment-scale rainfall time series for hydrological modelling and analysis.

His post-doctoral research centres on further advancing radar–gauge blending methodologies to produce hourly and 15-minute, 1 km gridded precipitation datasets for the UK, together with detailed evaluation of extreme rainfall characteristics. 

His research interests include extreme rainfall, hydrological risk, and climate data integration. Xiaobin has strong expertise in large-scale climate and hydrological datasets and has presented his work at national conferences such as the British Hydrological Society (BHS) and the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS). He is motivated to contribute to collaborative and impactful climate research supporting the UK and Ireland.

Publications