Steering Committee

Malcolm Roberts

Committee Chair
Manager, High resolution global climate modelling, Met Office Hadley Centre, UK
Coordinator: EU Horizon 2020 PRIMAVERA @Primavera_H2020

Malcolm joined the Met Office Hadley Centre in 1991, and has spent most of his time since then working within the Ocean and Ice Model Development area. During that time he completed a PhD at the University of Reading on studying the effects of small-scale ocean eddies within ocean models, and how these might be represented in lower resolution models. He now leads the High Resolution Global Climate Modelling group, which studies the effects of model resolution in the coupled atmosphere/ocean/sea-ice system. 

Malcolm's work aims to develop a hierarchy of resolutions of the current global coupled climate model, in collaboration with the NERC academic community as part of the Joint Weather and Climate Research Program (Met Office) (NERC JWCRP). This enables the study of the impact of improving the representation of processes at higher resolution on the model's mean state, variability and extremes.  This has evolved into an international effort to study the impact of model resolution in a multi-model context as part of the WRCP CMIP6 HighResMIP protocol, with the main European contribution as part of Horizon 2020 PRIMAVERA project.

This work builds on previous exploration of model resolution with a previous version of the climate model, done in collaboration with the NERC community as part of the High Resolution Climate Modelling (HRCM) group, and together with NERC and the Earth Simulator Center in Japan as the UK-Japan Climate Collaboration.

Shari Yvon-Lewis

Professor
Department Head, Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University

Dr. Yvon-Lewis is a Professor and Department Head of Oceanography at Texas A&M University. She received her Ph.D. from The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami in 1994. Her research involves understanding the role of the ocean in regulating atmospherically important trace gases. Specifically, she studies the biogeochemistry of ozone depleting substances and greenhouse gases. She received the College of Geoscience’s (Texas A&M University) Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching in 2015. Her publications include over 40 research papers. She was a chapter co-author in the World Meteorological Organization’s Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion report in 2006 and in 2014.

Gokhan Danabasoglu

The CESM Chief Scientist and Senior Scientist Oceanography
Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory NCAR

Dr. Danabasoglu is a Senior Scientist in the Oceanography Section of the Climate and Global Dynamics division in NESL. The general subjects of his research are understanding the role of the oceans in the earth’s climate system and computational modelling of the ocean as geophysical fluid. His particular interests include developing subgrid scale parameterizations to represent unresolved physics in ocean general circulation models and investigating mechanisms and potential predictability associated with the (multi)decadal variability of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. He is currently serving as a co-chair of the Community Earth System Model Ocean Model Working Group and a co-chair of the CLIVAR Working Group on Ocean Model Development. His publications include over 50 research papers. Dr. Danabasoglu is the recipient of the 2009 Community Climate System Model Distinguished Achievement Award.

Kehou Pan

Secretary General of Academic Committee and Member of Executive Committee, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM), China and Professor of the Department of Aquaculture, Ocean University of China (OUC)

Professor Pan is a Council Member of Chinese Society for Oceanography and Limnology, Deputy Council Chair for its affiliated Society for Microbial Oceanography, Council Member of the affiliated Society for Shellfish, Council Member of the affiliated Society for Phycology, and Executive Council Member of China Phycology Industry Alliance. Professor Pan focuses on research in “Phycological Biology and Bio-engineering” and “Marine Ecology”. He has led 6 national projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), and National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and China National Key R&D Program during the 13th Five-year Plan Period, etc. Professor Pan has attained 9 national invention patents and published more than 60 papers, among which over 30 were in SCI journals and some in top journals in phycology including “Journal of Phycology” and “Journal of Applied Phycology”.

R. Saravanan

Professor
Department Head, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University

Dr. Saravanan is a Professor and Department Head of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. from the Princeton University in 1990. His research career has focused on atmospheric dynamics, climate modeling and ocean-atmosphere interaction. He uses global and regional models and statistical methods to study global modes of low-frequency variability, tropical cyclones and the interaction between ocean eddies and mid-latitude storms. He has received the College of Geoscience’s (Texas A&M University) Distinguished Research Award in 2015. He has been a member of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic (PIRATA) Science Steering Committee (2010-2018), a member of the American Meteorological Society Committee on Climate Variability and Change (2014-2017), a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on the Assessment of Intra-seasonal to Inter-annual Climate Prediction and Predictability (2009) and editor, American Meteorological Society Journal of Climate (2007-2010).

Gongke Tan

Director for Department of International Affairs, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM), China and Director of Centre for International Cooperation, First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, China (FIO)

Prior to his current positions, Professor Tan held positions of Director of the Division of General Affairs, FIO (2012-2014), Director of International Cooperation Office, FIO (2006-2010), Director of China-Korea Joint Ocean Research Centre (CKJORC)) (2003-2006), Vice Director of CKJORC (2001-2003), Vice Director of Division of Sci. &Tech, FIO and Head of Division of General Affairs, CKJORC (1995-2000), Associate Researcher, FIO (1995) and Assistant Professor at Department of Physical Oceanography, FIO (1991-1995). Professor Tan attained his B.A. degree in Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University in 1988 and M. S. in Physical Oceanography at The FIO in 1991.

Steve Yeager

Project Scientist III
Oceanography Section, Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, NCAR

Steve joined NCAR's oceanography section in 1998 after getting his M.Sc. in Physics from Brown University.  Prior to that, he did his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College and then spent two years in Fiji as a Peace Corps volunteer.  Steve obtained his Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Colorado while working at NCAR.  Steve has contributed extensively to the development and application of the ocean component of the Community Earth System Model, and he served as the scientific liaison for the Ocean Model Working Group for several years. Steve's recent research has focused on the internal variability of the climate system, the origins, and dynamics of large-scale ocean circulation changes, and the potential for predicting near-term climate variations.