Keynote Speakers Biographies

Professor, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales

Jason did his PhD at the Australian National University before working for several as a research fellow at Yale University, USA. He then took an academic position at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where he is currently a Professor in Climate Science. Jason has held multiple leadership positions within elements of the World Climate Research Program including currently serving on the CORDEX Science Advisory Team. Jason is an expert in the science of the climate system particularly in regards to land-atmosphere interactions, the water cycle and regional climate change. His research investigates regional climate processes, how global climate change manifests itself at regional and local scales, and how these changes impact climate change risks to various human and natural systems. He uses convection permitting climate modelling to investigate these questions at scales that are relevant for key processes that generate various climatic hazards and are meaningful for decision making.

Associate Provost (Teaching & Learning), Chair Professor of Division of Environment and Sustainability, and Department of Mathematics, HKUST

Prof. Jimmy C H Fung was appointed Associate Provost (Teaching & Learning) on 31 January 2022. Prof. Fung is a Chair Professor in the Department of Mathematics in the School of Science, and the Division of Environment & Sustainability in the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies.  He is also currently serving the roles of the Chairman of the Undergraduate Admission Sub-Committee (since 2021), Member of the Undergraduate Studies (since 2011), and the Associate Director of the Atmospheric Research Center (since 2017).

Prof. Fung also serves in many professional capacities, including the Scientific Advisor of the Hong Kong Observatory (since 2008), Chairman of the Environmental Research, Technology Demonstration and Conference Vetting Sub-committee under the Environment and Conservation Fund Committee (since 2021), Air Ventilation Assessment Consultant for the Hong Kong SAR: Planning Department (since 2010).

Prof. Fung specializes in atmospheric meteorology and air quality modeling, as well as the application of remote sensing technology on air quality research in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Region.   Prof. Fung has over fifteen years of experience in applying advanced atmospheric chemistry models (including CMAQ and CAMx) to study air quality over HK and PRD regions.  Through using both statistical and prognostic air quality prediction techniques in simulating the wind fields for different meteorological conditions, and at different temporal and spatial scales, his research team has designed the Air Pollution Index forecast system currently in operation at the HK Environmental Protection Department (HKEPD) and more recently, he has helped them to upgrade their air quality model PATH which consists of meteorological models, emission models and chemical transport models.  Prof. Fung’s research has had a significant and wide-reaching impact on the environment, public policy, public understanding, and public health.

Professor, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Yali Luo received the M.S. degree from the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS), Beijing, China, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree from The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, in 2003. After spending 3.5 years as a Research Scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA, she took a scientist position at the State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, CAMS, in July 2007. She was a Chief Scientist with CAMS from September 2019 to March 2023, where she was also the Chief Scientist of the Southern China Monsoon Rainfall Experiment (SCMREX) that is a Research and Development Project of the World Weather Organization’s World Weather Research Programme (WWRP). Yali Luo joined Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST), Nanjing, China in April 2023. She is now a professor at the School of Atmospheric Sciences, NUIST. Professor Yali Luo is serving as the AOGS (Asia Oceania Geosciences Society) Atmospheric Science Section President (2024-2026), a member of the steering group of the WWRP InPRHA project, and a member of the IAMAS ICCP. She works on the understanding of physical mechanisms governing the evolution and long-term changes of weather/climate extremes especially heavy precipitation, using integrated observational datasets combined with numerical modeling. She has more than 100 refereed publications in journals. She was one of the lead authors of the IPCC’s Special Report on Extremes (SREX) entitled “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”.