DR. WINIFRED AYINPOGBILLA ATIAH

Dr Winifred Ayinpogbilla Atiah is a young Ghanaian climate scientist with a master’s degree in Mathematical Sciences from the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences Next Einstein Institute (AIMS-Senegal NEI), as well as bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in Meteorology and Climate Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Dr Atiah’s primary research interests are Hydrometeorology, Biometeorology, Agrometeorology, Weather Systems and Forecasting, Tropical Meteorology and Climate Extremes. She is equally enthralled by interdisciplinary research projects. She is currently a lecturer at the Department of Physics of the  Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Her current research examines the role of Mesoscale Convective Systems in recent West African floods. She has worked extensively with some research clusters across the globe, having about five years of expertise in climate science and multidisciplinary research. These include the Dynamic-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA), the Global Challenge Research Fund Africa Science for Weather Information and Forecasting Techniques (GCRF African SWIFT) projects, among others. Her long-term career goal is to become a well-known female interdisciplinary researcher and mentor in Africa and, eventually, the world.

She is one of the four selected female fellows for the AIMS NEI Fellowship Program for Women in Climate Change Science. Her research focuses on applying the Gumbel extreme value and wavelet techniques to estimate rainfall seasonality indices’ variability and return periods in West Africa. The findings from her research will be used as a guide for farmers, extension officers, and others in successful crop production planning in support of food security. It would also help to direct the focus of agro-advisories on climate-agricultural technologies. Her research study is significant for achieving SDGs 1, 2, and 13, which focused on eradicating poverty, hunger, and climate change.