2024 Earth System Observations & Modeling Graduate Symposium

Meet Our Keynote Speakers

Dr. Venkatachalam Ramaswamy: Dr. Venkatachalam “Ram” Ramaswamy is a central figure in climate science. From 1992 to 2021, Ram has been a Lead Author, Coordinating Lead Author, or Review Editor for each of the major assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. He has also been a Coordinating Lead Author on the World Meteorological Organization assessments on stratospheric ozone and climate, and the first US Climate Change Science Program (Global Change Research Program) assessment. A Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Ram has also been involved in the leadership of the US Global Change Research Program’s Interagency Group on Integrative Modeling and the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Program.

Ram took the helm at GFDL in 2008, as the lab’s fourth director. He says leading the lab requires the flexibility to let folks pursue their research interests while fulfilling NOAA mission objectives, and being constantly aware that it can take many years for basic research to be ready for inclusion in GFDL’s models. Advances in basic sciences (e.g., processes, mechanisms) are pivotal for improvements in modeling, understanding, and predictions. The challenge is knowing how to support basic research and shape it into cutting-edge GFDL models for weather, climate, and the Earth System.

Dr. Michael Farrar: Dr. Michael R. Farrar is the director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). NCEP delivers national and global weather, water, climate and space weather guidance, forecasts, warnings and analyses to help save lives and protect property. As director, Farrar oversees the planning, science and technology, and operational responsibilities related to NCEP’s nine national centers, which include the National Hurricane Center, Storm Prediction Center, Weather Prediction Center, Ocean Prediction Center, Climate Prediction Center, Aviation Weather Center, Space Weather Prediction Center, Environmental Modeling Center, and NCEP Central Operations.

In previous roles, Dr. Farrar has served as Chief Scientist for Weather Operations for the U.S. Air Force (USAF), Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Director of EMC, Director of the NWS Meteorological Development Laboratory (MDL), Acting Deputy Director of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), Vice President of Strategic and Business Development for Science and Technology Corporation (STC), and as a uniformed USAF meteorologist where he served for 24 years in several leadership positions in forecast operations, scientific development, program management, training, budgeting, planning/policy, and collaboration with U.S. and international partners.

Meet Our Career Panelists: 

Dr. Abheera Hazra: Dr. Abheera Hazra is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research interest includes hydrologic predictions of extreme conditions, designing experiments for better understanding of land and atmospheric processes through simulations using dynamical models such as NoahMP, CLSM, CESM and CAM. She has research experiences at University of California Santa Barbara’s Earth Research Institute (California) and George Mason University’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructural Engineering (Virginia). She currently leads the tasks for operational hydrologic forecasting (NHyFAS) over continental Africa and the Middle East and has authored and been part of many peer reviewed articles, as well as research presentations. She has participated in numerous national and international conferences and workshops.

Dr. Victoria Ford: Dr. Victoria Ford is a broadly-trained, inter-disciplinary climate data scientist with more than 8 years of practical experience in the Earth Sciences field with a passion for communicating climate change awareness and impacts to broad audiences.   Dr. Ford joined Eagle Rock Analytics in May 2022 where her research focuses on air-sea interactions, and has most recently identified critical climate change impacts resulting from sea ice loss.