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ABOUT ME

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I am passionate about knowledge. As a researcher and modeller, my job is to make climate science relevant to stakeholders and contribute to new knowledge.

Concerns about global environmental issues and a fascination for natural phenomena brought me to the Ecole Polytechnique (France) as an undergraduate, where I studied maths, physics, and Earth sciences. Afterwards, I moved to Canada and obtained a PhD from McGill University in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. Then, I held a joint postdoctoral position at Caltech and Brown University in climate dynamics and theoretical physics, before I moved to ETH Zurich. I am now a weather risk modeller at Risk Management Solutions in London.

 

My academic research aimed at exploring fundamental questions about the atmosphere. For example: what controls the strength of storms; or what determines the vertical structure of the atmosphere? To answer these questions, I used both numerical modelling and theory. My current research at RMS is more applied and aims at modelling accurately extreme weather events relevant to the (re)insurance industry.

I have always had highly multidisciplinary approaches in my work. My PhD research bridged applied mathematics, fluid dynamics, and chemistry. My postdoctoral research was at the interface of climate science and theoretical physics. My current research draws from climate dynamics, meteorology, and statistics.

I like to explore and discover. I lived in 6 countries, studied and worked in 5 and held positions in 4 universities across Europe and North America. I am an enthusiastic long-distance and trail runner, cyclist, skier, and climber.

BIO

Modeller, weather and climate risks, 
Moody's RMS 

May 2016 - Present

Postdoctoral researcher,
ETH Zürich 

January 2014 - March 2016

Postdoctoral scholar,
Caltech and Brown University

December 2011 - December 2013

PhD, McGill 

2012

Engineering degree (Master), 
Ecole Polytechnique

2007

CONTACT ME

Moody's RMS,

The Minster Building

21 Mincing Lane

EC3R 7AG, London, UK

farid.ait-chaalal  AT  polytechnique.org

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