World Meteorological Organization

Leader

Nabansu Chattopadhyay 

Dr. Nabansu Chattopadhyay worked as Head, Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department. Dr. Chattopadhyay has been working in Agrometeorology for more than 35 years, including working on various projects and consultancies with the World Band and WMO. He has published over 150 papers and received various awards and honours. At present Dr. Chattopadhyay has been working as President of the International Society for Agricultural Meteorology (INSAM). He will also chair the Expert Team on the Guide to Agricultural Meteorology Practices (ET-GAMP).

Core members

Clyde Fraisse

Clyde Fraisse is a Professor at the University of Florida Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department. His research and extension programs focus on developing and providing climate information and decision support tools to help agricultural producers mitigate risk. Dr. Fraisse developed and maintains AgroClimate (http://agroclimate.org/), a web-based climate information system and worked extensively in South America and Africa.

Denise de Pina

Denise Semedo de Pina, born on July 23, 1992, in Praia, Cabo Verde, graduated in Meteorology, Oceanography and Geophysics from the University of Aveiro. She works at the National Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics (INMG) of Cabo Verde as an Executive Administrator. She is responsible for Agrometeorology and Air Quality, and is also the delegate for the INMG's Southern Delegation.

Manasah Mkhabela

He has a PhD in Biological Engineering form Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada focusing on the measurement and mitigation of greenhouse gases in agriculture. He currently works Adjunct Professor and Research Associate (Agrometeorology) in the Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba, Canada. His work focuses on modelling relationships between weather and various factors related to cereal productivity and quality. 

Kathryn Reardon-Smith

Kate is Senior Research Fellow (Integrated Climate Risk Solutions), Senior Lecturer & Program Director (Bachelor of Environmental Science) at the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences and School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia. Her research focuses on the condition of soil and water resources and natural ecosystems in agricultural production landscapes, particularly in response to climate variability and management. She has over 20 years of professional and community experience as an ecologist and environmental scientist, spanning a range of fields including agroecology, climate risk management and sustainable land and water management systems.

Soora Naresh Kumar

Is Professor at the Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. He is leading the InfoCrop modelling group. He has developed models for perennials (coconut, grape) and annual crops (green gram, spinach and cauliflower) and has over 25 years of research experience. Research interests include developing process-based models, decision support systems and assessing impacts, adaptation gains and vulnerability of major crops to climate change in India and implementation of climate change adaptation in farmers’ fields. He has been involved in Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) since its inception in 2011 as a member of AgMIP-wheat, rice, maize, potato and soybean pilot groups. He is also the Government of India Expert Reviewer for IPCC reports. 

Sara Moutia

Experienced climate scientist with a strong background in managing meteorological data and assessing the impacts of climate change. Currently working on the National Climate and Climate Change Service. Proven expertise in evaluating the impacts of climate change on critical sectors, including water resources, agriculture, with a focus on studying extreme climate events such as drought and heatwaves. Active member of national working groups focused on climate change adaptation.

Maria Elena Fernandez-Long

María Elena Fernández Long has a Magister of Science in Agricultural Meteorology, from Buenos Aires University. She has been working in School of Agronomy for more than 25 years; from 2015 as a Professor in the fields of agricultural meteorology; and she also work in Capacity Building Department at the National Meteorological Service. She is author/co-author of more than 150 publications in peer reviewed journals, books, monographs and in Meeting Proceedings, and 5 software’s. 

Pete Falloon

Dr Pete Falloon (FRMetS, FRSA) is the Met Office’s (UK) Science Lead – Food Security with over 25 years of experience in the impacts of climate and land use change on food systems and the environment. Pete is also Associate Professor in Climate Resilient Food Systems at the University of Bristol, Sustainability Director for Food Drink Devon CIC and an Honorary Walker Institute Associate.

Associated members

Richard Warren Turner

Dr Richard Turner is a research meteorologist at NIWA (New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research). He has a PhD in Agronomy (Agricultural Meteorology) from Iowa State University. He has worked closely with New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries in modelling the wind-borne dispersal of pathogens/pests such as Myrtle rust and foot-and-mouth-disease, gypsy moth, and RIFA.

Cathleen Freuhauf

Dr. Cathleen Frühauf holds a diploma in meteorology from the Humboldt University in Berlin and a doctorate in natural sciences from the Technical University of Dresden. The topic of her doctoral thesis was the determination of the evaporation from a coniferous forest by use of various methods from the domains of micrometeorology, hydrology and forest science. From 1998-2002 she helped set up and looked after the FACE system (FACE – free air carbon dioxid enrichment) in Brunswick at the Federal Research Center for Agriculture. In 2002 she moved to the Agrometeorological Department of the German Weather Service DWD and initially worked in the field of viticulture research. Since 2009 she has been employed at the Center for Agrometeorological Research in Brunswick. Her work focuses on the water balance of agricultural crops and the effects of climate change on agriculture. Dr. Cathleen Frühauf has about 30 years of experience in research in agro-meteorology and has worked in various CAgM expert teams at the WMO's since 2010.

Jorge Alvar-Beltran

Jorge is a climate risk and agrometeorologist specialist working for the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB) at FAO since 2020. At FAO, he provides technical backstopping of GCF and GEF projects, ensuring that the linkages between observed/projected hazards and impacts on agriculture are grounded on the best available information. He transfers capacities at national level on crop modelling, climate services, and risk assessments. He has 20+ research publications in the fields of climate change, agricultural meteorology, and impact-based models, and he is a co-author of 15+ UN reports. Jorge holds a PhD in climate-resilient crops: the case of quinoa in Burkina Faso.

Xiaomao Lin

Dr. Lin is a Professor of Agronomy and the State Climatologist at Kansas State University. A recipient of the 2024 Fulbright US Scholar award in Finland, Dr. Lin is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), serves as Division Chair of Climatology and Modeling for ASA, and has published over 100 journal articles on climate, impacts, and crops.

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