Climatologist (if you have to give me a label), but with eclectic interests. Resident at UCT since 1992, and seeing no reason to move yet! Currently engaged with the CSAG research group in the ENGEO department. Research interests include climate modeling, climate change, and interesting analysis methodologies. Extended interests in appropriate technology for Africa and scientific capacity building. A bit of a techno-addict balanced by non-academic activities including just about anything to do with water (scuba etc.), or music.

Chris oversees IT and systems development at CSAG as well as being involved in a variety of science projects including downscaling, regional modeling and science-society communication. His primary activity however is development of the Climate Information Explorer

I emigrated from High School Science and Geography teaching into applied climatology at UCT in 2000. My PhD research topic was the distribution, uptake and general usefulness of information emanating from seasonal forecasts for the various user sectors within the South African milieu. I am currently working with maize and wheat farmers in order to better understand the decision-making processes vis-à-vis climate forecasts. I am also working on a WRC funded project assessing the availability and usefulness of weather and climate information for water resource managers. Climate change impacts and adaptation options are also an area I find very challenging.

I am a hydrologist. Maybe even a wetland hydrologist. I like to get my feet wet and measure water in swamps for a living. But I am to do this no more. I've discovered joys of  juggling climate data, of Python, R, ssh, vim and qsub. Thus I am here, at CSAG. Using climate models' output for hydrological analyses in the context of climate change impact assessment, attribution and seasonal forecasting. Trying to figure out how the uncertainties and errors propagate through the various processing steps, and how to extract useful information out of this somewhat messy business. Bridging surprisingly disparate worlds of climate and hydrological modellers. My idea of fun is a day in the crags... the solitude of climbs... the camaraderie of the time in-between... the perspective on the maddening town below...

I joined UCT in 1992 and said "two years maximum",  nearly 20 years later I am still here.  The last 10 years have been spent at CSAG, where I plan to stay!  Mostly I just spend Bruce's money and occasionally try and keep track of it, book a few air tickets and have the afternoon off.

I joined CSAG on 01 November 2011, looking forward to be part of CSAG group and hoping to stay longer.  I still have to learn a lot of things about how things are done and who is doing what. Would like to travel!

I completed my MSc in Atmospheric Science at UCT and am now working part-time work at CSAG focusing on stakeholder engagement and training. I'm interested in how we can better communicate the vast amounts of climate information we produce and translate this into useful information for various stakeholders. Part of doing this is to provide information that is easily accessible and understandable.

I completed my MSc in Climatology at UCT and am now  doing full-time research work at CSAG. My official title is Scientific Officer, but more informally I'm known as Data Girl. My research interests include: climate change, climate data analysis and empirical downscaling methodologies. I'm also involved in the communication of climate change information and knowledge. When not at work, I try to ignore computers and rather head for the mountains.

I have returned to CSAG after spending 5 years at the UK Climate Impacts Programme in Oxford.  At CSAG I am now involved in stakeholder engagement, with the aim of bridging the gap between climate science and society.  My particular interests lie in the involvment of stakeholders in developing decision-relevant tools, the development of climate services within Africa and processes of adaptation.

In my position as a research associate, with a background in Zoology, I hope to bring uniqueness to CSAG. I am involved in building climate smart services through a science society interface.  Together with my large interest in climate change and information sharing, I am engaged in the communication and tailoring of the research produced by CSAG to different community needs.

I finally finished my PhD which looked at severe winter storm systems that affect the greater Cape Town region and trying to forecast these at a very high resolution (<1 km) in a computationally inexpensive way. Currently I do downscaling from GCM to a regional scale statiscally or numerically and also interpolate from station to grid scale for South Africa and beyond using various methods. I am still trying to set up a reliable weather station network in schools across the region to assist in climate education and observations. But I'd rather be diving or mountain biking or trail running or hanging off a cliff face somewhere or skiing .... sigh..... "Everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you." Crowded House.

I joined the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) as a Post-Doctoral fellow in 2008. My research is concerned with the impact evaluation and the investigation of adaptatation alternatives for agricultural management subject to changing climate conditions. Using CSAG climate downscaled scenarios, I am using crop models as evaluation of likely future conditions in order to identify vulnerable areas and appropriate adapatation alternatives. The investigation of new managements is guided by an optimization technique where (i) climate uncertainty and weather variability, as well as (ii) multicriteria evaluation of those potential agricultural managements are handled by an innovative group evaluation. The range of potential application is wide and so far I had the opportunity to work with maize subject to A2 future climate scenario southern Africa (SADC region), climate resilience of peanut cropping in Katherine (Australia), wheat crop efficiency in the Berg River Catchement (South Africa).

I moved to Cape Town in October 2011 to begin a postdoc in CSAG researching the use of climate information for decision making within a developing country context. How society uses climate science to make decisions regarding mitigation and adaptation is a complex and often confusing subject, which is what makes it so interesting. In my PhD at the London School of Economics (originally at the University of Exeter) I was able to explore this subject in preparation of my thesis titled, "Examining the decision-relevance of climate model information for the insurance industry". I also have an interest in the fundamental predictability of climate under climate change in relation to chaos and nonlinear dynamics theory. When I am not pondering about climate change I enjoy skiing (why did I move to South Africa?), football, playing the guitar and traveling to beautiful scenic places (that's why I moved to South Africa).

Joined CSAG in 2009 and I am currently involved in a PhD work on extreme weather events (e.g., heat waves, floods, droughts) in the context of climate change.  My research emphasizes climate-driven changes that will likely be more important for society than will changes of climate averages.  Specifically, will there be changes in the frequency and intensity of  extreme events as climate changes? Which regions of Africa  will be mostly affected by extreme events?