International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Sixiong ZHAO

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 1999, Professor Sixiong Zhao is a Chinese meteorologist whose career has focused on mesoscale atmospheric dynamics, the mechanisms and numerical prediction of torrential rain and typhoons, and severe-weather forecasting. Born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in 1940, he entered the Department of Physics at Peking University in 1958 and subsequently transferred to the Department of Geophysics, graduating in 1964. He then joined the Institute of Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for graduate study and, following its reorganisation, continued his research at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, where he progressed from research intern to Research Professor and Doctoral Supervisor. He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Illinois from 1982 to 1985, a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre in Australia in 1989, and Mason Visiting Chair Professor at the University of New South Wales in 1997. At the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, he served as Director of the Division of Mesoscale Weather Systems and Disaster Research and later as Deputy Director and Executive Director of its International Centre for Climate and Environment Sciences. He has also played an active role in international scientific cooperation, including work with COMSATS and the CAS–TWAS–WMO International Forum on Climate, and has participated in collaborative research with Australia, the European Union, Korea, Thailand, and Pakistan on floods, heavy rainfall, monsoons, and hazardous weather. His honours include the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, the Australian Anthony Mason Research Award, and national recognition for scientific contributions.

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Professor Zhao’s research has centred on the dynamics and prediction of high-impact weather, particularly torrential rain and typhoons. In the 1970s, he and collaborators developed a fine-mesh primitive-equation precipitation model adapted to the observational and computing conditions then available in China. The model was subsequently applied to both rainstorm research and operational forecasting and received the First Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific and Technological Progress and a National Science and Technology Progress Award. His subsequent studies of heavy rainfall and mesoscale weather systems in China contributed to understanding the dynamical mechanisms of rainstorm development, including the role of upper-tropospheric divergence, frontal dynamics, and symmetric instability in Meiyu-front precipitation. He has led or participated in studies of major rainfall and flood events, including the 1998 Yangtze River floods, severe rainfall in the middle and lower Yangtze region, and mesoscale convective systems associated with major precipitation events in South China. His broader research encompasses extratropical cyclone development, frontal dynamics, multiscale circulation and interactions in the Asian–Australian monsoon system, and environmental meteorology. He has served on national expert committees on dust storms and participated in research on their mechanisms, monitoring, prediction, and disaster assessment. Professor Zhao has published more than 90 papers and co-authored two monographs, including Environmental Numerical Prediction Models and Their Applications (Springer, 2002). He has also contributed to postgraduate education in mesoscale atmospheric dynamics and doctoral training at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Through sustained research in mesoscale meteorology, severe-weather prediction, and international scientific cooperation, Professor Zhao has contributed to the understanding and forecasting of high-impact weather in China and to meteorological disaster risk reduction.