Keeping a cool head at a time of global warming

30th March 2009

Antonio Navarra

President of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change (CMCC)

Biography

Antonio Navarra (born in Naples in 1956) graduated in Physics in Bologna in 1980 and returned to Italy in 1986, after getting a Ph.D. at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of Princeton University. He is a research director at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, where he carries out research in the field of climate simulation with general circulation numerical models. He is also now President of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change (CMCC). Dr. Navarra’s scientific interests focus on the investigation of the dynamic mechanisms which control climate on a global scale, particularly regarding natural climate variability of the atmosphere-ocean system on interannual, decadal and centennial scales. The general aim is to understand and document the main modes of climate variability on interannual and decadal scales (teleconnections) by means of statistical methods, numerical simulations and simplified models. These studies are the natural complement of his second field of activity, which concerns the simulation and evaluation of climate change using future climate scenarios. Dr. Navarra also teaches in the “Science and Management of Climate Change” graduate program jointly managed by CMCC and the University of Venice. He is the author of several books and articles of general interest and also contributes to national newspapers. He has written: El Niño - Reality and Legends of the Climate Phenomenon of the Century (El Niño - Realtà e leggende del fenomeno climatico del secolo, Avverbi, 1997), Weather Prediction (Le previsioni del tempo, Il Saggiatore, 1996) and, with Andrea Pinchera, Climate (Il Clima, Laterza, 2000).