Home   /   about me

about me

PLV-PHOTO-HIGHRES-5x5cmI am a (full) Professor at the University of Reading and a Senior Scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS-Climate), leading and developing research on High-Resolution Global Climate Modelling and biosphere-atmosphere interactions.

My CV: PL Vidale’s CV

Present Appointments:

  • Chair of Climate System Science at the University of Reading (UoR), in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (Department of Meteorology).
  • Senior Scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, as Head of

Previous Appointments:

In October 2010 I was appointed as the first holder of the “Willis Chair of Climate System Science and Climate Hazards”, an endowed chair co-funded by Willis and NCAS, based at the Department of Meteorology.

In 2008 I was awarded a “Personal Chair” of Climate System Science at the Department of Meteorology.

Research and Academic Interests

I am an expert in weather and climate modelling, with special focus on landsurface-atmosphere interactions at the local to regional scale. My research has led to major progress in several areas, in particular: understanding the natureand causes of summer heat waves; understanding the feedbacks between atmosphere, vegetation (photosynthesis) and
soil moisture; monitoring ofvegetation growth and its variability from space; modelling of extreme weather and climate events, as well as quantifying their impacts (Tropical Cyclones,floods, droughts, wind storms).

Since 2007 I have also led the NERC High-Resolution Climate Modelling programme, HRCM, (previously UK-HiGEM and UK-Japan Climate Collaboration). More recently, I have become the NERC Principal Investigator for high-resolution climate modelling within the Joint Weather and Climate Research Programme, a partnership between the Met Office and NERC.

I have been the Director of the NCAS Climate Modelling Summer School, held bi-annually at Cambridge, since its first edition, in 2007. In 2012 I became the co-Director (with C.Reich, MPI, Germany) of the first E2SCMS Summer School, which was held in Kos, Greece, June 2012.

Previously, starting in late 2004, I was working at two locations: Reading and Yokohama.

  • NCAS-Climate (National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Climate Directorate, formerly called CGAM), located in the Department of Meteorology of the University of Reading, since October 2004.
  • Earth Simulator Center , located in Yokohama, Japan. I have led a team of UK scientists in the UK-Japan Climate Collaboration, porting and developing Hadley Centre GCMs on the Earth Simulator and building higher-resolution versions, for research in regional climate prediction, extremes etc. My collaboration with our Japanese colleagues revolves mostly around the simulation of Tropical Cyclones in high and ultra-high resolution GCMs.

 

Skip to toolbar