Earth scientist begins four-year term on climate model panel
Oluwayemi Garuba will help improve scientific understanding and representation of the physical processes governing the climate and its variation.
(Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Oluwayemi Garuba, an Earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), was selected for the US Climate Variability and Predictability Program (US CLIVAR), Process Study and Model Improvement panel. Garuba will serve a four-year term as one of twelve expert scientists selected by a scientific steering committee.
US CLIVAR is an Earth Science Community program that fosters understanding and prediction of climate variability on a range of timescales. The program includes both observational and modeling components, with a focus on the ocean and how it interacts with other elements of the Earth system. The US CLIVAR program serves the climate community and society by coordinating and facilitating research on outstanding climate questions.
The panel’s primary mission is “to reduce uncertainties in the general circulation models used for climate variability prediction and climate change projections through an improved understanding and representation of the physical processes governing climate and its variation.” Panel members bring different sets of expertise to help solve the uncertainty problem. The panel will help guide approaches and plans for CLIVAR working groups.
“I’m excited to work with the other panel members to help develop plans to characterize and improve climate models,” said Garuba. “This work is essential to understanding how a changing climate will behave.”
Garuba joined PNNL in 2016. Since then, she has worked on advancing scientists' understanding of the role the ocean plays in climate variability and change. Her research particularly focuses on using global climate models and simulations to explore the mechanisms and impacts of ocean circulation variation and change on the global climate through interactions with the atmosphere and sea ice. Garuba has created novel tools for disentangling these coupled interactions in models. She has also led the development of the slab ocean component in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model.
Prior to joining PNNL, Garuba obtained her PhD in climate dynamics from George Mason University, an MS in Earth system physics from the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Italy, and a BS in physics electronics from the Federal University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria.
Published: May 30, 2023