World Meteorological Organization

Andreja Susnik 

Andreja Sušnik is an agronomist by education and holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy from the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. She worked as an agrometeorologist at the Hydrometeorological Institute of Slovenia between 1992-2007.  From 2007 she is Head of Section for Meteorological Support to Agriculture in the frame of the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO).  The main focus of her work is the development of very diverse agrometeorological services, tools, and analysis for different stakeholders in agriculture, preparation of strategic documents related to vulnerability assessments and adaptation of agriculture to climate variability and climate change, last 15 years mainly focusing on the development of drought monitoring tools, methodologies and management measures on a national and international scale. In this context, she has been successfully coordinating several national and international projects and initiatives and is part of a number of international working groups on the topic, including with UNCCD and WMO.

Christa Pudmenzky

Dr. Christa Pudmenzky has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Climatology. She has over 20 years of experience researching the impact of climate and worked as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Applied Climate Science at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, specialising in climate, drought, agricultural application research. Christa developed the Australian Drought Monitor and drought indices suitable for Australian conditions, which are used in drought monitoring, planning and prediction for producers and policymakers.  She has a strong capability in climate change adaptation integration analysis and associated program and project development, especially in relation agriculture and aspects such as dust transport, associated geomorphology, and relevant climate science. Christa was previous being selected as an Expert Team Member representing Australia and the South-West Pacific region within the United Nations/World Meteorological Organisation Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM) and Commission for Climatology (CCl). She was more recently being selected as an Expert Team Global Co-Lead on Drought as part of the Standing Committee on Services for Agriculture (SC-AGR). She also has been actively involved in the international Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative recovering historical weather data to underpin 3D weather reconstructions (reanalyses) spanning the last 200-250 years for climate applications and impacts needs worldwide.

Soumaya Ben Rashed

Mrs. Soumaya ben Rached is a Meteorology Senior engineer with experience of 35 years, she Graduated from the Tunisien school of the civil aviation and meteorology. During her career Soumaya Ben Rached participated in many national and international projects between 1986 and 1994 she was a Member of the Hydrometeorology service and she had a contribution to the realization of the Tunisian climatic Atlas. She was a member of the seasonal forecast Development project before becoming a member of the management group of the regional climate prediction forum MEDCOF. She is the focal point regional climate center for north Africa as responsible for the climate monitoring node. She became a member of the TT-GSCU working group of the WMO climatological commission she was group responsible for the update of global climate forecast bulletin. She led "Research & Development" activity of INM-MF Twinning project. She was a member of the national committee for the third national communication of Tunisia under the UN framework convention on climate change UNFCCC. Mrs. Soumaya became member of WMO expert team on regional climate activities 'IPET-RCA' (2018-2022). In 2020 she was moninated as membership of the national advisory committee on adaptation to climate change within the ministry of the environment

Sayed Masoud Mostafavi Darani

Dr. Mostafavi Darani has a Master degree in agronomy, class I degree in agrometeorology and PhD degree in Agricultural Climatology. In 2013 joined the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia in a sabbatical leave. He has over 20 years of experiences working as a senior expert of Agrometeorology in I.R.Iran Meteorological Organization and started his international activities from 2005 as a founding and steering committee member of INSAM (International Society for Agricultural Meteorology) under guidance of late Prof. Stigter. He has been a member of the former CAgM commission Expert Teams (ETs) as an expert and team leader for 10 years. His research interest is in agrometeorology including crop-climate modeling, climate change, drought, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and etc. 

Josef Eitzinger

Professor Josef Eitzinger (PhD) is professor for Agrometeorology at the Institute of Meteorology and Climatology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. His research focus includes climate change impact and adaptation assessments for agriculture, developing and applying tools such as crop models, agrometeorological risk indicators, pest and disease models. Other activities include the development of information systems such as for monitoring and forecasting of agrometeorological conditions (such as agricultural drought) at various scales and microclimatic field studies for specific research questions. Since 2000 he served as expert for various expert teams of WMO-CAgM (World Meteorological Organization - Commission for Agricultural Meteorology).

Gabriel Blain

Gabriel C. Blain is a Scientific Researcher and Professor of climatology at the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC; 2005-present). He is Editor-in-Chief of the Scientific Journal Bragantia (2013-present) and member of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change (2012-present). Gabriel C. Blain graduated in agricultural engineering at the University of Campinas (2002). He also holds a Master Degree in Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture from the IAC (Dissertation Title: Adapting the Palmer Drought Severity Index and the Standardized Precipitation Index to the Climate Conditions of the state of São Paulo) and a PhD in Science from the University of São Paulo (Thesis Title: Rainfall and Air Temperature Series of the State of São Paulo: Periodicities, Probabilities, Trends and Climatic Variations). He supervises the work of Master’s and PhD students and is author or co-author of over 83 scientific papers.

Surender Singh

Professor Surender Singh (PhD) is a principal scientist and senior researcher in agrometeorology at CCS Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar, India. His research interests include operational agrometeorology and outreach, regional climate change and monsoon dynamics, agricultural drought, fog dynamics and impact assessments, and ambient air quality concerns in agricultural production systems. Dr Singh earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture (Hons), a master's degree in agricultural meteorology, and a doctorate in agricultural meteorology from Haryana Agricultural University. Professor Singh has 30 years of experience in the field of agrometeorology and related applied fields. Professor Singh has previously held the roles of Head of the Department of Agricultural Meteorology, University's Adviser and Associate Director (Counseling & Placement). Dr Singh has previously worked as a visiting faculty member at IAC-CIIAGRO in Campinas, Brazil; AS ICTP in Trieste, Italy; BOKU-Met in Vienna, Austria; and ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. 
Professor Singh is currently the managing editor of the Journal of Agrometeorology and a core member of the SC-AGR Expert Team on Drought (ET-DRG) under the World Meteorological Organization's SERCOM; Chairman of the Association of Agrometeorologists (Hisar Chapter) and a founding member of the South Asia Forum on Agricultural Meteorology (SAFOAM).
 

Andrew Hoell

Dr. Andrew Hoell is a Research Meteorologist at the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory who examines the predictability, risk, and processes that underpin regional hydroclimatic extremes. His research is used to produce forward-looking outlooks and assessments of environmental conditions relevant to agriculture, water security, and livelihoods for famine and drought early warning systems. Andy also serves as an editor for Journal of Climate, co-leads the NOAA Drought Task Force, and is a member of the senior agroclimatology staff for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

Omar Konte

Cecilia Hidalgo

Cecilia Hidalgo is a Plenary Professor at the University of Buenos Aires. At present, she is a member of the Coordination Unit of the multinational project Drought Information System for Southern South America (SISSA by its Spanish acronym) funded by the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and Euroclima+. Her research and teaching interests are in anthropology of science, with a focus on scientific creativity and innovation in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research settings. Dr. Hidalgo has participated in several projects working on complex environmental problems; she has served as Project Director of a multi-national and multisectoral collaborative research network on the provision of climate services in southeastern South America (2012-2018) funded by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research.

Patrick Cherneski

Abdullah Ceylan

Daniel Tsegai (UNCCD)

Dr. Daniel Tsegai is Programme Officer at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) where he leads the “Drought and Water Scarcity” portfolio of the convention and coordinates the global Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought. Before joining UNCCD, Daniel was Academic Officer at the UN-Water Programme of the United Nations University (UNU) and early in his career, he served as lecturer and Senior Researcher at the Center of Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn.

Rong Zhang (SC-HYD)

Since 2019, Rong Zhang (PhD) became associate professor at Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI) under the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Transport and National Energy Administration, Nanjing, China. Her research areas are hydrology and hydroclimatology, and has more than 10 years of experiences in the related field. Her interests include hydrological modelling and forecasting, climate change impact assessment, sub-seasonal and seasonal runoff forecasting, downscaling of hydrological impact scenarios, development of climate scenarios, and automatic calibration of physically-based, spatially-distributed hydrological models. Dr Rong Zhang earned a bachelor's degree in 2003 in Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering and a master's degree in 2006 in Hydrology and Water Resources, both from Hohai University of China; and she obtained a doctorate in 2015 in Territorial Engineering and Environmental Sciences (classification of Distinction and Honours) from University of Évora of Portugal. Dr Rong Zhang has previously worked at Brazilian National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN) for more than 3 years.
Dr. Rong Zhang is currently a core member of the Standing Committee on Hydrological Services (SC-HYD) under the World Meteorological Organization's SERCOM.
 

Lynette Bettio (SC-DRR)

Roger Pulwarty (SC-CLI)

Gregor Gregoric (DMCSEE)

Valentin Aich (IDMP-GWP)