Events

21 Oct 2013

10:30 am

Lecture Theatre 2, G/F, Yasumoto International Academic Park, CUHK

Prof. Gabriel Ngar-Cheung Lau is the AXA Professor of Geography and Resource Management at The Chinsese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).  He previously served as the lead scientist of the Climate Diagnostics Project at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  He was concurrently a Lecturer with the rank of Professor at the Department of Geosciences and Program of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton University.

Professor Lau was born in Hong Kong and spent his youth in this city. 　He majored in physics at United College, CUHK, and received the B.Sc. degree in 1974. 　With the support of the Run Run Shaw Postgraduate Scholarship of CUHK, he proceeded to pursue graduate studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, and received the Ph.D. degree in atmospheric sciences in 1978. 　He then went to Princeton and was associated with the research and teaching programs at GFDL throughout the 1978-2013 period.

Professor Lau’s principal research interests are concerned with the behaviour of atmospheric and oceanic phenomena in various geographical regions, with typical time scales ranging from hours to several years.  These features include day-night differences, day-to-day weather disturbances in warm and cold seasons, persistent flow structures, monsoonal circulations, and changes in the air-sea coupled system associated with El Nino.  His primary research tools include datasets based on in situ observations and remote-sensing platforms, as well as output from experiments and simulations with numerical models.  He has authored or coauthored over 100 publications in various scientific journals, and has been designated as a Highly Cited Researcher by the ISI Web of Knowledge.

He was a contributing author of the Fourth Assessment Report, and a lead author of the Fifth Assessment Report, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize (2007).  Professor Lau has participated in the research contributing to IPCC since it was established in 1988.  

Professor Lau is a recipient of the Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), Unusually Outstanding Performance Award of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) 120th Anniversary Distinguished Meteorologist
Award.  He was elected as a Fellow of AMS in 1991, and was editor of the AMS Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences..

Professor Lau has also served as the C.N. Yang Visiting Fellow and Wei Lun Professor at CUHK, Science Advisor to the HKO, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Meteorological Administration and Academia Sinica, Visiting Professor at Peking University, and external reviewer at Taiwan University. He was a member of various scientific committees of AMS, NOAA and the World Meteorological Organization.

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In his inaugural lecture, Professor Lau will give a brief review of his work over the past four decades on the characteristics of storm tracks in mid-latitudes and El Nino events in the tropical Pacific, and discuss the roles of these features in the variability of the climate system.  He will also demonstrate the utility of computer-based numerical models for studying these phenomena.  Professor Lau will also share his  recent participation in climate change assessment, in particular the activities of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change.  

To illustrate the impacts of global warming on the characteristics of local weather phenomena, Professor Lau will present model results on the projected increases in the duration and frequency of summertime heat waves in China during the 21^st Century.  He will also share his insights into the future prospects of climate research in Hong Kong and East Asia.