(in alphabetical order of surname) (more to be added)
[Alexander Baklanov]
Alexander Baklanov is a Professor in Climate and Geophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and a Research Director at the Institute for Atmospheric & Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Finland; during last 10 years worked in the Science and Innovation department of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland, where was responsible for urban cross-cutting and sand-and-dust-storm research activities and programs; a visiting professor in several universities in Europe and Asia. He is a member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea, Founding Editor of the Urban Climate journal, a Lead Author for IPCC SR on Climate Change and Cities, co-chair of GEO Resilient Cities and Human Settlements WG. He led a number of international projects on urban climate and environmental risk (e.g. ArcticRISK, NordRisk, FUMAPEX, MEGAPOLI, EnviroRISKS, EuMetChem, EnviroHIRLAM, PEEX MP, IMTECC, IUS4CRC), a Member of the Board of the International Association for Urban Climate, Science Advisory Board of the WCRP CORDEX URB-RCC, EU projects CARMINE, RI-URBANS, etc. He has published about 400 scientific publications, including 15 books and about 300 peer-reviewed journal papers, h-index = 61, supervised 15 PhD students.
[Rafiq Hamdi]
Dr. Rafiq Hamdi is a senior researcher and head of unit in the Research Department of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium and a guest lecturer at Ghent University, Belgium. His research includes urban heat island effects during heat waves, the evolution of urban heat extremes in the Brussels Capital Region under future climate scenarios, and the impacts of heat waves and urban climate on air quality and ozone pollution. His work also addresses urban climate monitoring and modelling, including high-resolution dynamical downscaling and observational studies of city-scale climate conditions, with applications in cities such as Brussels and Ghent. He is a lead author of IPCC Specific Report on “Climate Change and Cities”, and has received several distinctions, including the AMS Editor’s Award for the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology (2013), the Young Scientist Travel Award from the European Meteorological Society (2010), and an Outstanding Poster Award at EMS 2016.
[Paul J. Kushner]
Prof. Kushner is the Chair of Physics at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the extratropical atmospheric general circulation and its response to climate change, with a particular emphasis on Physics of Polar Climates. He led a major project, the Canadian Sea Ice and Snow Evolution Network (CanSISE, www.cansise.ca). Paul obtained his B.Sc. '90, M.Sc. '91 and Ph.D. '95 from Dept. of Physics, U. of Toronto and returned to UofT in 2004 after 7 years research at GFDL and Princeton University. He has served as Vice-President (2017-2018), President (2018-2019) and Past President (2019-2020) of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and has recently elected as an AMS fellow (American Meteorological Society).
[Andrea Laura Pineda Rojas]
Dr. Andrea Pineda Rojas is a Research Scientist at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina, and works at CIMA/IFAECI, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. She holds a Master-level degree in Physical Oceanography and a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. Her work addresses the spatio-temporal variability of pollutants in cities, the development of methodologies to evaluate air quality models under limited monitoring conditions, and nitrogen dioxide variability at traffic hotspots, including drivers of high concentrations and the role of chemistry in shaping near-road NO2 peaks. Dr. Pineda Rojas has led national and international research projects on urban air quality, supervised undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral research, and contributed invited lectures on urban air pollution and air quality modelling. She is a member of the FAIRMODE Working Group 4 on microscale assessment (European Commission Joint Research Centre) and of the WMO/WWRP Urban-PREDICT project, and she also participates in the ChimSur (CNRS) network in South America.
[Drew Shindell]
Drew Shindell is Nicholas Professor of Earth Sciences at Duke University. From 1995 to 2014 he was at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. His research group focuses on quantifying the impacts on human health, agriculture, climate and the economy of various policy options. He has been an author on >300 peer-reviewed publications, testified on climate issues before both houses of the US Congress, and has led multiple UN Assessments and IPCC Chapters. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Panel to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition of >100 countries and previously served on the US EPA’s Science Advisory Board. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
[Chung-Hsiung Sui]
Chung-Hsiung Sui is a Professor Emeritus and Project Scientist at National Taiwan University (NTU). He earned his B.S. from NTU (1976) and his Ph.D. from UCLA (1984), both in Atmospheric Sciences. His extensive career includes postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA and the University of Maryland, and a 16-year tenure as a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (1985–2001). After returning to Taiwan in 2001, he held faculty positions at National Central University (NCU) and later at NTU, where he served as a Distinguished Professor until 2024. He has also held visiting faculty positions at the University of Tokyo and NOAA/NCEP, and co-organized the University Allied Workshop to foster collaboration among young climate researchers across Asia. Dr. Sui’s research spans tropical meteorology, climate dynamics, and hydro-climate processes. He has authored approximately 120 papers on topics such as climate equilibrium, the diurnal cycle, precipitation efficiency, air-sea exchanges, Indo-Pacific climate variability, and the East Asian monsoon. Throughout his career, Dr. Sui has received numerous honors, including being named a Fellow of the Meteorological Society of the ROC and a Distinguished Professor at both NCU and NTU. He is also a recipient of the Ministry of Science and Technology's Academic Summit Program grant, the Outstanding Scholar Award, NASA's GSFC Center of Excellence Award, and multiple scientific awards from NASA’s Laboratory for Atmospheres.
[Admir Créso Targino]
Dr. Admir Créso Targino is an Associate Professor of Environmental Physics at the Federal University of Technology (UTFPR), Brazil. He holds MSc degrees in Meteorology from the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and Stockholm University (Sweden), as well as a PhD in Meteorology and Oceanography from Stockholm University. His research portfolio spans a wide range of urban environmental challenges, including urban climate dynamics, the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) to alleviate heat stress, and the influence of atmospheric composition on air quality. His work also covers the characterisation of short-lived climate pollutants, such as ozone and black carbon, alongside emerging contaminants like microplastics, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and organophosphate esters (OPEs). Dr. Targino serves as an Associate Editor for several distinguished journals in the field, including Environmental Pollution and Urban Climate, both published by Elsevier. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for "Urban Research Meteorology and Environment" (GURME) within the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) program. He also contributes his expertise to global climate governance as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), specifically for Working Group II, Chapter 10 (Central and South America).
[David Topping]
David Topping is Professor of the Digital Environment and Director of the Digital Worlds at the University of Manchester. His research lies at the intersection of atmospheric science, environmental data science and artificial intelligence, focusing on atmospheric aerosols, urban air quality and data-driven approaches to understanding environmental change. Professor Topping has made significant contributions to the modelling of atmospheric aerosol processes, improving understanding of the physical and chemical properties of airborne particles and their impacts on air quality, climate and human health. He has also led the development of widely used open-source computational tools and modelling frameworks that enable researchers to simulate atmospheric chemistry and analyse complex environmental datasets. In recent years his work has focused on advancing the use of artificial intelligence and data science in environmental research, including machine-learning approaches for analysing atmospheric observations and Au enabled search and discovery. He has also helped shape the UK’s national strategy for digital environmental science, contributing to the Natural Environment Research Council’s Digital Strategy and serving on a national Science Committee and the UK Government’s DEFRA Expert Group.
