Invited Speakers
Prof. Ian Cluckie
Swansea University
Prof. Ian Cluckie is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Engineering at Swansea University, and was previously the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Science and Engineering. Professor Cluckie has been a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering since 1997 and was elected a Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2016. Professor Cluckie was selected by the Chinese government as the Friendship Award winner for 2015, the highest honor awarded to foreigners. He is an expert in areas such as weather radar, flood control and water resource management. For the past decade, Professor Cluckie has been active in building institutional links and research collaborations between Swansea University and many Chinese partners, including joint supervision of PhD students, chairing international conferences and giving keynote speeches at many research seminars. Professor Cluckie has been a visiting Professor at Sun Yat-Sen University for more than fourteen years and is also a visiting Professor at Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute and Anhui University. He has also provided advice on a number of large government projects in China, including the Three Gorges Dam.
Prof. Geoffrey Austin
University of Auckland
Prof. Geoffrey Austin was born in London (UK) and went to Cambridge University and obtained a BA Physics and, after briefly working at the Marconi Company on radar systems including aircraft automatic landing systems for use in fog, he went to Canterbury University, New Zealand. There he worked on ionospheric radars for his PhD and became a Lecturer in Physics. He was then appointed to the McGill University (Canada) Department of Physics becoming a Full Professor and working under Stuart Marshall at the McGill Radar Weather Observatory (later renamed the J Stuart Marshall Radar Weather Observatory (MWRO)), becoming the second Director on Professor Marshall’s retirement, and serving in that role for 15 years. During that time the staff of MWRO designed, built and installed both the first the first S band weather radar in Hong Kong in support of Kai Tak Airport and typhoon forecasting in collaboration with the Hong Kong Royal Observatory and the first computer on a radar system in China with the Lanzhou Institute (Professor Ge) as well as the first all software weather radar Doppler processor. During that period he was developing Nowcasting techniques in collaboration with many others. This resulted in radar and/or Nowcasting systems being delivered to several countries including, Brazil, Spain and Cape Canaveral for the Space Shuttle Launch and Landing Site.
In 1991 he was appointed Professor of Physics and Head of Department of Physics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand where he is still an Emeritus Professor of Physics and continues work on the hydrological application of Nowcasting as well as radar and satellite data assimilation into mesoscale NWP models, using the NZ National Network Radars operated by the NZMetService and small high resolution X band radars built at the University. This work is being continued and expanded as a private company - Weather Radar New Zealand Ltd. He was appointed as Visiting Professor at the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in 2017.
Prof. Dusan Zrnic
National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
Prof. Dusan S. Zrnic (LF’08) graduated from the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, in 1965 and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA, in 1966 and 1969.
He is a Senior Scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and Affiliate Professor of meteorology and electrical engineering (EE) at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. He has developed several scientific and engineering aspects of polarimetric weather radar technology leading to implementation on the national network of weather radars, WSR-88Ds. He has published extensively (over 150 referred papers) on weather radar signal processing, radar meteorology, polarimetric weather radar science, and remote sensing. He holds four US patents in the area of weather radar technology. He has coauthored two books: Doppler Radar and Weather Observations co-authored with Dr. Richard Doviak and Radar Polarimetry for Weather Observations, with Dr. A.V. Ryzhkov.
Dr. Zrnic is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and life fellow of IEEE. He was the Chief Editor of the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. Four times he received the Best Research Paper Award from NOAA’s office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research. He is a co-recipient of the IEEE 1988 Harry Diamond Memorial Award for contributions to and applications of weather radar science and is sharing the 1993 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Award with Dr. P. Mahapatra. He is co-recipient with R.V Ryzhkov of the WMO 1996 Vaisala award. In 2004 he received the Presidential Rank Award for exceptional long term accomplishments. He was recognized by the AMS Remote Sensing Prize in 2008: “For pioneering and substantial contributions to improvements of meteorological radars for both research and operational applications.” NOAA 2010 Technology Transfer Award was given to him for “developing a method that allows faster updates of dual-polarized radar data without losing function and provides significant cost savings”. He was inducted into the USA National Academy of Engineering in 2006 with citation: “For development of potent radar methods that have greatly enhanced operational weather detection and warning and advanced meteorological research.”
Prof. Guifu Zhang
The University of Oklahoma
Prof. Guifu Zhang received his B.S. in Physics from Anhui University in 1982, M.S. in Radio Physics from Wuhan University in 1985, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1998.
He was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Space Physics Department at Wuhan University from 1985 to 1993. In 1989, he worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Communication Research Laboratory in Japan. From 1993 to 1998, Dr. Zhang studied and worked in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington, where he was first a Visiting Scientist and later a Ph.D. student. He was a Scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) during the period between 1998 and 2005. In 2005, he joined the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, where he is now a professor. Dr. Zhang formulated theories of phased array weather radar interferometry and polarimetry. He led the development of advanced signal processing algorithm to improve weather radar data quality and of the polarimetric radar data simulators to bridge the gap between radar meteorology and numerical weather prediction. Among his current projects, he is working on topics such as the optimal use of polarimetric radar data (PRD) in quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) and quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) and the research and development of polarimetric phased array radars for weather measurements and multi-mission capability.
Dr. Zhang is the author of Weather Radar Polarimetry, and he has received four US patent awards, filed over ten intellectual property disclosures, and published over 100 journal publications for his research work in radar theory/technology, signal processing and applications in meteorology and hydrology. He also received several research and excellent paper awards.
Prof. Witold F. Krajewski
Water Resources Engineering, University of Iowa
Dr. Witold F. Krajewski is the Rose and Joseph Summers Chair of Water Resources Engineering at the University of Iowa. He is Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Research Engineer at IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering. Since 2009, he has served as Director of the Iowa Flood Center.
Dr. Krajewski received an M.S. (1976) and a Ph.D. (1980) from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, in environmental engineering and water resources systems. He was a Research Hydrologist at the Office of Hydrology of the National Weather Service until 1987, when he joined the University of Iowa.
Dr. Krajewski’s scientific interests concern measuring, modeling, and forecasting precipitation using radar and satellite remote sensing. His current research focuses on understanding the genesis of floods through field experimentation and modeling, and the quantification of uncertainty in hydrologic prediction at a range of temporal and spatial scales. Dr. Krajewski has published more than 200 papers in refereed journals.
He is Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. He has served on numerous committees and panels of these and other professional organizations, and on the editorial boards of several journals. He was Editor of Advances in Water Resources. In 2012 he was Chair of the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.
Dr. Krajewski received an M.S. (1976) and a Ph.D. (1980) from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, in environmental engineering and water resources systems. He was a Research Hydrologist at the Office of Hydrology of the National Weather Service until 1987, when he joined the University of Iowa.
Dr. Krajewski’s scientific interests concern measuring, modeling, and forecasting precipitation using radar and satellite remote sensing. His current research focuses on understanding the genesis of floods through field experimentation and modeling, and the quantification of uncertainty in hydrologic prediction at a range of temporal and spatial scales. Dr. Krajewski has published more than 200 papers in refereed journals.
He is Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. He has served on numerous committees and panels of these and other professional organizations, and on the editorial boards of several journals. He was Editor of Advances in Water Resources. In 2012 he was Chair of the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.
Prof. Dong-Jun Seo
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
Dr. Dong-Jun (DJ) Seo is the Robert S. Gooch Professor of Water Resources Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He received MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ph.D. from Utah State University. Dr. Seo has over 25 years of experience in hydrology, hydrometeorology and water resources engineering. Before joining UTA, he led the Hydrometeorology Group and Hydrologic Ensemble Prediction Group of the National Weather Service’s Office of Hydrologic Development (now the National Water Center) over a 15-year period. His research areas include rainfall estimation and short-term prediction, hydrologic modeling, data assimilation, ensemble prediction, optimal estimation and control. Dr. Seo has published over 80 papers and served as associated editors of the Journal of Hydrometeorology and the Journal of Hydrology, and the lead guest editors for the Journal of Hydrology Special Issues on Hydrologic Applications of Weather Radar, and Ensemble Prediction and Data Assimilation for Operational Hydrology.
Prof. Eiichi Nakaki
Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University
Prof. Eiichi Nakakita is vice director of Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of Kyoto University since 2015 and professor of Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Disasters Division, DPRI since 2004. He received Bachelor, Masters, and Ph.D, Eng. degrees from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1983, 1985 and 1990 respectively. He started his career at Water Resources Research Center at Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University from 1985 first as research associate and later promoted to Associate Professor. In 1992 he spent about one sabbatical year at Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research at The University of Iowa. He has been holding visiting researcher/professor position at various national and international institution, e.g. National Research Institute for Erath Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Japan, Tropical Marine Science Institute at National University of Singapore, and University Technology MARA, MALAYSIA. His research fields are Hydrometeorology and Radar Hydrology, Rainfall and flood predictions, Climate change impact assessment and adaptation. He has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals in radar hydrology, meteorology, urban hydrology, civil engineering, water resources engineering. He received research awards such as ”Prize for Encouragement from Japan Society of Civil Engineers” in 1993, “Science Award from Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources” in 2012 and “Gambo Awards from Meteorological Society of Japan” in 2016. He is leading big collaborative research projects with other universities and institutes such as “Integrated Research on State-of-the-art Multi-sensors In-situ Observation of Storm Genesis, and Reduction of Serious Disaster due to Heavy Rainfall” and Team D of “Program for Risk Information on Climate Change”, supported by the Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
He is a member of the River Council of Japan, Committee on Utilizing Weather Radar into River Management in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation, and Committees on Climate change and Adaptation in MLIT, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), and MEXT. He is also a member of Leadership Team, Climate Change Working Group, Technical Divisions of Innovation and Professional Development (IPD), IAHR.
Prof. V. Chandrasekar
University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University
Prof. Chandrasekar received his B. Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering, from Indian Institute of technology, and PhD in Radar Systems from Colorado State University, where he currently serves as University Distinguished Professor.
He has been actively involved with research and development of weather radar systems for over 30 years. He has played a key role in developing the CSU-CHILL National Radar Facility as one of the most advanced meteorological radar systems available for research. He is an avid experimentalist conducting special experiments to collect in situ observations to verify the new techniques and technologies.
Prof. Chandra’s research work is summarized in the two textbooks and the five general purpose book he co-authored for the US National Academy. He was invited by the National Academy to develop policy books on Future of Weather Radar Technology, Flash flood forecasting, use Polarimetric as well as National Initiative on Atmospheric profiling. He serves as the Research Director of the US, National Science Foundation, CASA Engineering research Center program. More recently, his team has developed and deployed shipborne polarimetric weather radar for Ocean precipitation/ sea interaction studies, as well snowfall measurement systems for Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Prof. Chandra is an elected Fellow of IEEE, American Meteorological Society and International Union of Radio Science (URSI). He was awarded, NWS directors medal of excellence, IEEE Education award, He is well known for his academic dedication and was awarded Outstanding Advisor Award and Preston Davis award for Instructional innovation.He has served as, Editor and Chief Editor of AMS journal, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology for 12 years.
Prof. Alexis Berne
Environmental Engineering Institute,
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Dr. Alexis Berne is active in the field of radar meteorology, with a focus on solid precipitation in mountainous and polar regions. Combining polarimetric radar, in-situ measurements, stochastic and numerical modeling, his research activities aim to unravel the interplay between complex terrain, atmospheric dynamics and precipitation microphysics, in order to better understand the factors driving precipitation as well as to improve quantitative precipitation estimation. Alexis Berne received his PhD from Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, in 2002, and was a Marie Curie postdocoral fellow at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, from 2003 to 2006. He joined EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, as Assistant Professor in 2006, heading the Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory since, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013.
Prof. Bai Li
China Meteorological Administration
Dr. Bai Li is the deputy director of Meteorological Observation Centre of CMA, executive director of China meteorological society and executive director of China Instrument and Control Society. He has long been engaged in weather forecasting and meteorological services and has done a lot of work in the construction of a new generation of weather radar, technical
support, application development and management. Some results of his work have been applied in the modern meteorological operations. He has published many papers in the national core journals.
