World Meteorological Organization

Ward Nolan Smith 

Dr. Ward Smith is a Scientist at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Ward has 25 years’ experience leading research on identifying sustainable and resilient farm management practices. He integrates new research into biophysical models and investigates the interactions between climate, soils and agricultural management on crop growth, hydrology, GHG emissions, and ammonia volatilization. Ward collaborates in several international studies focused on improving and inter-comparing agricultural models. 

John Qu

Dr. John J. Qu is a professor in the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science at George Mason University (GMU), where he serves as the founding director of the Global Environment and Natural Resource Institute (GENRI), and the Environmental Science and Technology Center (ESTC). He has over 20 years of teaching, research, and management experience on remote sensing, climate science, soil moisture/drought, clean energy, water/food security, environmental studies, ecosystems, and carbon. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and edited five books. His current research focus is on the development of integrated monitoring, early warning, and decision-support systems for sustainable water–energy–food–health nexus systems. As a faculty fellow of the Institute of Sustainable Earth (ISE), Dr. Qu leads the development of clean energy, decarbonization, and climate action theme, which aims to mitigate atmospheric carbon emissions and strengthen adaptive capacities at GMUs to climate threats in both highly industrialized and developing countries. Dr. Qu holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, and a B.Sc. degree from the Department of Meteorology, Nanjing Institute of Meteorology (Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST)), Nanjing, China. Dr. Qu has led the Soil Moisture Expert Task/Team at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) since 2012. 

Joseph Alfieri

Dr. Joseph is a research scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) where his research focuses on land-atmosphere exchange processes. His research combines in-situ, remote sensing, and modeling approaches to investigate the impact of surface heterogeneity and atmospheric conditions on the turbulent transport of heat, moisture, and trace compounds in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Dr. Alfieri has extensive experience using micrometeorological data collected via numerous approaches to characterize the physical processes regulating biosphere-atmosphere interactions, develop decision support and modeling tools to improve the management of water and other natural resources, and both evaluate and refine agricultural practices. In addition to his research in the United States, Dr. Alfieri has been invited to join research projects in Europe and South America; he has also consulted on projects in Asia and Africa. Dr. Alfieri received his Master’s Degree from the University of Colorado and his Doctoral Degree from Purdue University.

Mark Brusberg

In his capacity as Chief Meteorologist, Mr. Brusberg helps to coordinate the activities of USDA agencies responsible for weather- and climate-related issues and serves as a liaison with other organizations having similar interests, notably the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Since 2000, Mr. Brusberg has been a leading figure in the Department’s drought assessment and mitigation activities and has worked toward improving the performance of the U.S. Drought Monitor.  He was active in the design and implementation of the NOAA-led National Integrated Drought Information System and currently serves on its Executive Council.  In 2013, he began serving in a leadership capacity with the National Drought Resilience Partnership, an advisory group supporting the Executive Office of the President.

Geert Sterk

Dr. Geert Sterk is Associate Professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He is a specialist in global land degradation processes. His main fields of expertise are hydrology, meteorology, soil erosion, and land management. Dr. Sterk has conducted research on the causes, consequences, and solutions to land degradation processes in many countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. He has published about 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles on topics related to hydrology, soil erosion processes, and land management issues. He teaches students (BSc, MSc and PhD) about hydrology, land degradation processes, land management, and statistics. 

Elizabeth Pattey

Dr. Elizabeth Pattey is a Principal Research Scientist at Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Editor for Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. She is the 2020 recipient of the American Meteorological Society Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biometeorology, for pioneering the development of flux measuring systems using surface layer turbulence and nocturnal boundary layer to quantify particulate matter and trace gas fluxes. Dr. Pattey is the 2018 recipient of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Andrew Thomson Prize in Applied Meteorology for long-standing leadership and significant contributions to agricultural meteorology, particularly tower-based flux measuring systems over agricultural fields, which have contributed to improved quantification of pollutants and understanding of greenhouse gas exchanges from agricultural sources. She contributes to the initiative on flux measurement for agriculture with a special focus on greenhouse gases for the Standing Committee on Services for Agriculture of the World Meteorological Organization. Dr. Pattey received her Ph.D. degree in plant science – micrometeorology from Laval University, Canada.

Naresh Kumar Soora

Soora Naresh Kumar is Professor and Principal Scientist at the Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture (now Division of Environment Science), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India with over 25 years of research experience. He is leading the InfoCrop (a process-based dynamic simulation model) modeling group and is involved in AgMIP since its inception in 2011 as a member of AgMIP-wheat, rice, maize, and potato pilot groups. He has developed models for perennials (coconut, grape) and annual crops (green gram, kidney bean, and vegetable crops). Research interests include assessment of impacts, adaptation gains and vulnerability of major crops to climate change in India and implementation of climate change adaptation in farmers’ fields. He is the Government of India as well as IPCC Expert Reviewer for IPCC reports. Currently leading the National Facility for Capacity Building on Simulation Modelling in Agriculture. He is also leading the modeling teams in National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, NICRA project at IARI (Under National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture), DST Project under National Mission for Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change. He is also the Lead of Task Force -Agriculture under Notational Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystems and also the lead of assessments on Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability of Agriculture for India’s National Communication to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change under in Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change, Govt of India project. He is also an expert member in Bureau of Indian Standards, Expert Team Member, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Task Team on Climate and Agricultural Modelling for Sustainable Agriculture, WMO, Geneva (2019-2021); Expert Member, Global Steering Council of AgMIP project as well as in several DST, ICAR, and CSIR committees. He published over 120 research papers in high-impact journals and is recognized Globally and at national level.

Tom Davison 

Dr. Tom Davison obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Queensland on milk production from tropical grazing systems and led national research into heat stress management for dairy. He held senior positions in research investment with Dairy Australia and Meat and Livestock Australia. While with MLA he led the National Livestock Methane Program from 2010-16 that conducted research into productivity and methane mitigation in ruminants. His membership of the Emissions Assurance Reduction Committee and understanding of carbon markets gave rise to leadership of a study into pathways for the Australian red meat industry to become Carbon Neutral.  Currently, Tom is a member of the Method Advisory Panel with the Clean Energy Regulator and is Coordinating the Livestock Productivity Partnership with the University of New England that is researching future grazing systems for cattle and sheep.

Rim Zitouna Chebbi

Humberto Rocha

Udo Busch

Dr. Udo Busch studied meteorology at the University of Hanover and did his doctorate in the field of research on extreme weather conditions in climate change using climate simulations. After a few years at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute for Atmospheric Physics, he switched to the German Weather Service. Here he initially held leading positions in the field of forecasting and measurement technology before taking over the management of the agricultural meteorology department in 2011. The agricultural meteorology department also includes the center for agro-meteorological research in Braunschweig, which among other things deals with the modeling of soil moisture, climate in plant population and forest fire indices. Other areas of the department are working on operationalizing monthly forecasts for agriculture, for example the soil moisture.
 

Wentian He

Wentian He holds a Ph.D. in plant nutrition from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He worked as a post-doctor fellow in agroecosystem modeling at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada between 2017- 2020. Currently, he is a research scientist at the Institute of Plant Nutrition and Resources, in Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences. Wentian has more than 10 years of experience in fertilizer management and crop-soil modeling. He mainly conducts research that focuses on estimating nutrient cycling in agroecosystems, developing process-based models, assessing management practices and climate change impacts on crop production, nutrient losses, and GHG emissions.

Michael Cosh

Michael Cosh is a research hydrologist at the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service-Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, where he focuses on soil moisture monitoring of the landscape. He studies in situ network technology and scale with a goal of providing calibration and validation data for remote sensing products in the microwave spectrum.  He also works on agricultural remote sensing from the visible and infrared spectrum to understand crop status. He is the incoming Chair of the Land Product Validation Subgroup of the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites.  He is the chair of the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network in the U.S. and he has worked in soil moisture monitoring for 20 years. He is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.

Anna Dalla Marta

Dr. Anna Dalla Marta holds a PhD in Climatology and Soil Science and she is currently an Associate Professor at Firenze University, Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, Italy. Her research focuses on agronomy and soil management, precision agriculture, and sustainable crop production. She conducted field and modelling studies for assessing the impact of sustainable agronomic practices (fertilization and irrigation) on crop productivity and yield quality. In particular, she has experience in crop growth models for the simulation of crop water productivity under different pedoclimates and climate change scenarios, also combined with the use of satellite information. She is part of European programs projects (H2020, JPI, PRIMA) dealing with sustainable water and land management in agriculture.  She is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed international publications. Anna teaches about agronomy and soil management in viticulture, plant nursery, and natural resource management for tropical rural development in BSc and MSc courses.

John Malherbe

Dongli Wu

Maria Skansi

Aurore Brut

John Laubach