z IRI – International Research Institute for Climate and Society | Management

Management

Walter Baethgen

Acting Director of the IRI
Senior Research Scientist

Walter E. Baethgen is Senior Research Scientist, Director of the Regional and Sectoral Research program in the IRI, and served as Acting Director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center, both at The Earth Institute, Columbia University. He has established regional programs that aim to improve climate risk assessment and risk management in agriculture, health, water resources, and natural ecosystems. In 2020 he became the Vice-president of the Board of Directors of INIA (Uruguayan National Agricultural Research Institute).

He acted as Distinguished Lead Scholar of the NEXUS Program (Fulbright Foundation) between 2011 and 2013. Before joining the IRI, Baethgen was a Senior Scientist in the Research and Development Division of IFDC (International Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development Center) where he worked mainly in Information and Decision Support Systems for the Agricultural Sector (1987-2003).

Baethgen acted as a consultant for the World Bank, IADB, United Nations (UNDP, UNIDO, FAO, IAEA), and the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation. He has also acted as a consultant to governments and the private sector in several countries throughout Latin America. He was an author in IPCC’s Second, Third and Fourth Assessment Reports and he was a member of the IPCC team that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

He serves or has served as a member of scientific advisory committees of several international organizations including the CGIAR, IAI, IGBP and WMO. He was also reviewer of several international research programs (NOAA, NASA, NSF, IAI, and German, Norwegian and Austrian governments).

Baethgen obtained his PhD and M.Sc. degrees in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and his B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Uruguay. He has over 150 publications to his credit.

Walter Baethgen CV: English | Español

Andrew W. Robertson

Senior Research Scientist
Head of Climate Group

Dr. Andrew Robertson is a Senior Research Scientist and heads the IRI Climate Group. He is an adjunct professor in Columbia Climate School where he teaches in the Climate and Society MA Program.

Andrew is a climate scientist with over 30 years of experience in topics ranging from midlatitude meteorology, coupled ocean-atmosphere climate dynamics, sub-seasonal and seasonal forecasting, downscaling, and tailoring of climate information for use in conjunction with sectoral models for climate adaptation and risk management. He has taught in capacity building training courses around the world. He leads the IRI’s routine global seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasting activities.

After graduating from the University of Leeds, UK, with a BSc in mathematics and geography, Andrew received an MSc from Imperial College, London in atmospheric physics and dynamics, and a PhD in atmospheric dynamics from the University of Reading in 1984, under the supervision of Brian Hoskins. He held postdoctoral and research positions at the Universities of Paris, Munich, and UCLA prior to joining the IRI in 2001.

He is a co-chair of the WWRP/WCRP Sub-Seasonal to Seasonal Prediction Project (S2S), and is a member of the WMO Expert Team on Climate Services Information System Operations (ET-CSISO).

Andrew has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, which can be found on Google Scholar or Research Gate.