With only a glimmer of hope of being selected, I applied for the CAS-PIFI program towards the end of my Ph.D. program at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2018. Given the prestigious nature of the international fellowship, the selection progress is rigorous and as such competitive. When I learned that I had been awarded a CAS-PIFI postdoctoral fellowship, I was overjoyed and my desire in continuing my research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was further strengthened.
Under the continuous guidance of my Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Lin Zhaohui and the unalloyed support of his research team, I quickly settled in to pursue new frontiers inspired by my Ph.D. research work. The favorable environment provided by the International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences (ICCES), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), CAS made my PIFI postdoctoral research experience productive. As I was able to broaden my research skills and knowledge while working with world-class scientists on related research topics. Particularly, I was opportune to work with scientists behind the CAS-ESM2-0 (Chinese Academy of Sciences Earth System Model version 2.0) simulations, a state-of-art model that participated in the World Climate Research Program, Coupled Model Intercomparison Project version 6 (CMIP6). The model output constituted a major resource in different aspects of my research work.
Given that ICCES doubles as the CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Climate and Environment Sciences with the mandate to build scientific strength and drive innovations in the developing world. The enabling environment facilitated my exposure to international research collaborations with scholars from the developing world and an ample opportunity to pursue my passion for community service. Such that I participated in the review of the recently published IPCC report and helped organize early career scientist events during the 2019 International Conference on Regional Climate and the CAS-TWAS-WMO Forum (CTWF) amongst others. While participating actively in early career scientist networks, in the consolidation of our concerted effort to tackle the obstacles facing Africa’s young climate scientists.
The focus of my post-doctoral research work is designed to deepen our understanding of the impact of Trans-Atlantic-Pacific Ocean Dipole (TAPOD) on summer precipitation extremes over West Africa. Interestingly, model simulations capture the observed features of TAPOD, including the positive and negative phases of the dipole index which further established the index as a veritable tool for the prediction of summer rainfall over West Africa. Additionally, using a multi-model ensemble approach, a process-based analysis of climate extremes in CMIP6 simulations indicates the intensification of precipitation extremes over the region. While underscoring the connections between the future changes in precipitation extremes and the tropical ocean dipole under climate change. Moreso, the PIFI fellowship gave me the opportunity to participate actively in several projects led by my supervisor Professor Lin, which further strengthened my research capabilities. To cap it all, my application for Research Fund for International Scientists was recently approved by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Undoubtedly, the PIFI postdoctoral fellowship has nurtured me into the scientist I have dreamed to be while dowsing the fears I had as an early career scientist.
Nonetheless, I feel so indebted for the support I have continued to receive from CAS, especially the wonderful staffers at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. During the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was constantly checked on, which encouraged me to stay positive. In fact, the warmth with which I was welcomed when I started my Ph.D. research work at the institute many years ago hasn’t ceased. I would describe my stay in Prof. Lin's group as a delightful experience. I must admit that the PIFI postdoctoral fellowship has sharped my research skills and helped me gain more research experience which has prepared me to handle independent research. As such my research colleagues and students have also gained from my innovative mindset, hence we have had many successes stories and have continued to break new frontiers in our research endeavors.
