The award ceremony of 2020 XIE Yibing Young Meteorologist Award was held on Nov 25, 2020 in Peking University, where XIE Yibing Foundation was hosted. Dr. CHENG Lijing was one of 6 recipients national wide.

XIE Yibing Young Meteorologist Award was set up in commemoration of XIE Yibing (1917-1995) who was one of founding scientists of China's modern meteorology. The award has been presented annually since 2008 to young scientists who make outstanding contribution to development, reform and innovation of meteorology.

CHENG is awarded for developing widely used ocean temperature and salinity gridded data and estimating ocean warming rate more precisely in the past six decades.

CHENG received his PhD from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2014 for his research "Estimation on global ocean heat content and the tropical cyclone's impact on ocean energy budget". He then worked in IAP/CAS as an associate professor. His work includes examination of systematic errors in ocean observations, study of historical ocean heat content (OHC) change, and Earth's energy budget. He is a lead author of United Nations - IPCC Special Report for Ocean and Cryosphere; United Nations - World Ocean Assessment.