Biosketch:

• Areas of Interest


• Participation in Panels


• Professional Activities


• Affiliations


• Education


• Work Experience


• Columns and blogs

Areas of Interest

• Regional climate changes
• Weather and Climate Extremes
• Climate Change detection and attribution
• Climate risk assessment
• Adaptation to climate change
• Climate Modelling
• Climate Variability
• Climate Model Validation and diagnosis
• Ocean Heat Content, Sea-level rise
• UV CDAT

Participation in Panels

• Member, Joint Scientific Committee, World Climate Research Programme
• Member, Monsoon Mission, Scientific Review and Monitoriing Committee
• Member, Organizing Team, Kickoff of "The Predicted Ocean" theme United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)
• Lead Author, Sixth Assessment Report (Working Group 1, Chapter-3) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Elsevier Journal "Climate Risk Management"
• Member, Research Advisory Committee National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida
• Member, HAPPI Steering Committee
• Member, HPC Steering Committee, IIT Delhi.
• Member, CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group
• Member, Board of Studies, School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University of Delhi.
• Member, Research Advisory Committee Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune (2015-2017)
• Member, CLIVAR Open Science Conference 2016 Scientific Organising Committee
• Lead Author, Fifth Assessment Report (Working Group 1, Chapter-10) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)
• Contributing author, Chapter 8, Fourth Assessment Report (Working Group 1) of the IPCC
• Invited Expert, UNEP Panel "Asian Brown Cloud" Project, La Jolla, California. February 1-2, 2001. Contributed to UNEP Report resulting from panel activity.
• Contributing author, Chapter 8, Third Assessment Report (Working Group 1) of the IPCC

Professional Activities

• Reviewer for International and National Journals: Climate Dynamics, Journal of Climate, Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Tellus, Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, EOS, JGR, International Journal of Climatology, Weather and Forecasting, Current Science, Journal of Earth System Science, Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, IJED
• Reviewer for Funding Agencies: Department of Energy(DOE, USA), National Science Foundation (NSF, USA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, USA), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS, India), Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES, India), Department of Science & Technology (DST, India)

Affiliations

• Member, American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Life Member, Ocean Society of India
• Life Member, India Meteorological Society

Work Experience

• November 2022 - June 2025: Dean Faculty, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, India.
• November 2019-Present: Professor, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, India.
• June 2007-November 2019: Associate Professor, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, India.
• October 2000-May 2007: Research Scientist, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA, U.S.A.
• May 1998-September 2000: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, PCMDI, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA, U.S.A.
• September 1993-March 1998: Imaging/Computer Vision Specialist, Laitram Corporation, Harahan LA, U.S.A.
• January 1991-December 1993: Research Assistant, Tulane University, New Orleans LA, U.S.A.
• August 1986-December 1990: Teaching Assistant, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, U.S.A.

Education

• Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. Ph.D., December 1994. Dissertation: "An Investigation of Natural Climate Variability, Sensitivity and Poleward Transport using the COADS Data Set".
• Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A, M.Engg Mechanical Engineering, May 1990. Masters Thesis: "A numerical study of curvature and injection effects on heat transfer in laminar flow past a cavity".
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, B. Engg (Hons) Mechanical Engineering, June 1986.
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, M. Sc (Hons) Mathematics, June 1986. Masters Thesis: "Studies on Associative Rings".

Columns and blogs

• "Earth Signs": A monthly editorial column for Hindustan Times Next (Schools edition)
  
  1. Is climate change making heat waves worse? (15^th July, 2016)
  2. Little boys, little girls, and the Indian monsoon (19^th August, 2016)
  3. Here's how climate change drives sea level higher (9^th September, 2016)
  4. Crossing 400 for good (14^th October, 2016)
  5. A lot more has to be done to make Paris pact successful. (31^st August, 2017)
  6. Climate change behind the havoc caused by cyclones. (5^th October, 2017)
  7. What exactly causes pollution and why is it so worrisome? (9^th November, 2017)
  8. Ocean acidification can hit the marine food chain. (28^th December, 2017)
  9. High pollution level makes the Indian sky hazy, dark. (18^th January, 2018)
  10. The balancing act between carbon, climate and plants. (15^th February, 2018)
  11. Less ice in the Arctic is a matter of concern. (22^nd March, 2018)
  12. City dwellers are going to feel the heat island effect. (12^th April, 2018)
  13. Retreating glaciers in the Himalayas a worrying trend(10^th May, 2018)
  14. Warmer world raises the possibility of more wildfires. (26^th July, 2018)
  15. Can we meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement? (30^th August, 2018)
  16. All about monsoon in Kerala and its link with dynamics (27^th September, 2018)
  17. Global warming: 1.5°C limit requires rapid, major steps (25^th October, 2018)
  18. Are Ice Ages coming? The answer is: Not anytime soon (13^th December, 2018)
  19. Volcanic eruptions also affect global temperature (17^th January, 2019) Corrigendum
  20. What are Western disturbances and how do they impact our life (14^th February, 2019)
  21. Clouds impact the quantum of light, radiation on Earth (14^th March, 2019)
  22. What does rock weathering have to do with climate? (7^th May, 2019)
  23. No, the world is not going to end in 12 years!(16^th July, 2019)
  24. How do we predict future climate? (20^th August, 2019)
  25. Low rainfall not only cause of desertification (19^th September, 2019)
  26. Mangroves provide a natural defence (19^th November, 2019)
  27. Below-normal rainfall key factor behind this season’s Australia fires (21^stJanuary, 2020)


• A review of "The water book by Alok Jha" in the Indian Express (29th August 2015)


• A review of "Climate Dynamics by Kerry H. Cook" Current Science


• Book Review: Pushing our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2 Conservation and Society Volume 17 Issue 1, DOI:10.4103/cs.cs_18_91


• 400 not out (On ICRN portal)


• Who's Afraid of Carbon Dioxide? (On Climateeye.com)


• You Can Deal With Mumbai Floods By Planning Or Shrug Your Shoulders And Say, Mumbai's Spirit' Mukta Patil, Indiaspend.com, September 17, 2017


• ANALYSIS | Why Delhi Turns Into a Gas Chamber and How it Affects Much More Than Our Health News18, November 12, 2017


• Are you experiencing global weirding yet? IIT Delhi Board of Student Publications, December 6, 2017


• Air pollution and irrigation mask extremes of India's 2019 heatwave Carbon Brief Guest Post, 21st June 2019


• Opinion | Let's not ruin the planet with an intergenerational ponzi scheme.  The Mint. 21st October 2019


• How Indian Policymakers and Citizens Should Read IPCC Report's Code Red for Humanity   News18.com 11th August 2021


• Climate Conversations: Can Unprecedented Warming of Indian Ocean Serve as a Wake-up Call?    Weather.com 18th August 2021

Videos

• What Does Science Tell Us About Climate Change? - Earth Day 2020 Talk by Prof. A Rao (IITD) 22nd April 2020

Media Appearances

• UN Climate Change Panel's Damning Report | Left, Right & Centre   (NDTV, 10th August 2021)
• Two climate scientists & authors who contributed to the @IPCC_CH    (CNBC-TV18, 10th August 2021)
• Global Warming: 'Paris Climate Commitments Have To Be Upped'   (StratNewsGlobal Podcast 12th August 2021)
• Climate is the future, And it's looking bleak   (Times of India Podcast 11th August 2021)