Meet a scientist who is ‘passionate’ about meteorology and climate change research

‘We need the push to create a team of high-quality meteorologists, dedicated and passionate about the industry. Only then can the society meet the needs of society, solve the urgent and practical problems of forecasting natural disasters and researching climate change ‘.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Duc Thanh, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. (Photo: Bich Lien) That is shared by Assoc. Ngo Duc Thanh, Hanoi University of Science and Technology – a young scientist who has just received the nomination for the Ta Quang Buu Prize in 2021 announced by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Sincere and full of enthusiasm of the scientist who met us, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Thanh said: Global climate change (CC) is a contemporary challenge that humanity is facing. Many human and computational resources are focused by the world to make future climate change scenarios under different assumptions. In 2012, at an international conference in Vietnam led by Assoc. Ngo Duc Thanh co-organized, Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiments (Southeast Asia) project coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiments (Southeast Asia) was established with the goal of sharing computational resources, human resources and promoting research for Southeast Asia. As soon as CORDEX-SEA was initiated, Assoc. Ngo Duc Thanh and his colleagues have embarked on research on simulating extreme temperature and precipitation factors for Southeast Asia. The study focuses on a number of climatic factors for the entire Southeast Asia region such as the number of heavy rainy days, the number of consecutive rainy or no rainy days, the number of days when the temperature is too hot or too cold … The program helped him to be named in the list of nominees for the Ta Quang Buu Award in 2021 – the project “Evaluation of the ability of the RegCM4 model to simulate the extreme indicators of rain and temperature in the CORDEX-Southeast. ASIAN”. According to Assoc. Ngo Duc Thanh, there are currently many models with different parameter configurations that can be used to calculate future climate change for the global as well as for individual regions such as Southeast Asia. However, different models will give different errors in different countries, regions, and times. During more than 4 years of implementation, Assoc. Ngo Duc Thanh and international colleagues conducted 18 simulation experiments to find the most suitable and optimal model configuration capable of representing the extreme climatic factors of rain and heat. area. 18 experiments were also ranked, from which the most optimal set of model parameters were selected, serving the long-term climate change projection until the end of the 21st century. After being announced, the work received the attention of the research community inside and outside the area. By providing the most optimal model parameters for long-term simulation experiments in Southeast Asia, the work is extremely important, helping to save significant resources and computation time. planning future climate change for the entire region. Initial research results are positive, but things have not stopped. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Duc Thanh said that, along with the results obtained, many big questions were re-opened: What is the cause of the difference in rainfall increase and decrease in different regions of the region? How do changes in the rain temperature regime affect extreme phenomena such as floods, droughts, hot weather …? However, the thing that Assoc. Ngo Duc Thanh feels most confident and confident that it is the handshake association of international scientists. Never before has the inter-country cooperation in the field been so extremely challenging as meteorology and climate change have been so closely coordinated. Talking more about the success of the project, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Thanh said: This is not only an honor for each individual scientist but also an opportunity for the field of meteorology / climate to be “quietly” and Picky learners, workers get more attention from society. Concerned about this field has not been concerned by many people, he expressed: There are very few young people interested in studying this field because this is also a challenging issue. “In recent years, each course has only recruited very few students, leading to this industry often scored relatively low, while the industry is in need of people who are good at math, physics and computer science.” In addition, during his work, he witnessed “inflows of people coming and going” in a number of hydro-meteorological research units, partly due to working conditions and inadequate income. living did not attract them. “We need the push to create a team of high-quality meteorologists that can be dedicated and passionate about the industry. That way can meet the needs of the society, solving practical and urgent problems such as forecasting natural disasters or researching climate change ”, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Thanh shared. /. The Ta Quang Buu Award is awarded annually by the Ministry of Science and Technology to honor scientists who have outstanding achievements in basic research in the fields of natural sciences and engineering. In 2021, together with TS. Bui Minh Tuan, Assoc. TS. Ngo Duc Thanh, a famous meteorologist was nominated for the “Main Award” category of this award. The Awards Ceremony is expected to be held on May 18 – Vietnam Science and Technology Day.