Dr. Zhou Tianjun, Deputy Director and Professor in the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, was endorsed to be the member of the Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Project Scientific Steering Group (SSG) by Dr. Antonio Busalacchi, Chair of Joint Scientific Committee for World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and Dr. David Carlson, Director of WCRP. His office term is for an initial three-year term beginning 1 January 2015.

SPARC is a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), which was founded in 1992.  SPARC has coordinated for almost two decades high-level research activities of increasing relevance for understanding Earth system processes. Its outcomes contributed significantly to international assessments, such as the assessments of ozone depletion by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the climate assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). SPARC activities are organized under three overarching themes and result from an integration of process studies, observations and modelling. The Scientific Steering Group (SSG) provides leadership for the SPARC programme and represents a broad spectrum of disciplines and nationalities, and includes both junior and senior scientists. The SPARC SSG is supported by the SPARC Office, theme leaders and activity leaders. 

Dr. Zhou has wide research interests including coupled atmosphere-ocean modeling and climate dynamics, East Asian climate change and climate variability, air-sea interaction and Asian-Australian monsoon predictability. Over the years, he has many voluntary international community services and is currently a Lead Author (LA), IPCC WG1 AR5, member of GEWEX Radiation Panel (GRP), GEWEX/WCRP and member of Asian-Australian Monsoon Panel (AAMP), CLIVAR/WCRP.

(from LASG / IAP)