Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental ScienceS (ACCESS)

The Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental ScienceS (ACCESS) is the leading research center on the climate and the environment of the Arabian peninsula and the Gulf region. It brings scientific research on local and regional climate change and environment up to speed with the rapid development of the societies and economies that dwell in the region.

To this end, Mubadala ACCESS is building observational and modeling capacity in the marine and atmospheric sector, integrating the multidisciplinary competencies present within NYU Abu Dhabi and the NYU Global Network. The Center collaborates with UAE government agencies and public stakeholders, and its scientists are part of the Climate Change Research Network (CCRN). At the same time, the Center focuses on basic scientific research (e.g., on rainfall, coral reefs, plankton dynamics, urban environments, instrument development, etc.), which is locally motivated but has global implications.

The Center is divided into seven core interdisciplinary research cores:

  1. Biogeochemical Extremes in the Southern Gulf
  2. Climate of the Arabian Peninsula
  3. Arabian Marine Systems in a Warming Climate
  4. Environmental and Climate Change in UAE’s Urban Areas
  5. Impacts of the Gulf’s Changing Salinity
  6. Enhancing the Conservation of UAE’s Coral Reefs
  7. Impacts of Phytoplankton Dynamics on UAE’s Coastal Waters

Highlights

Principal Investigator

Francesco Paparella is the director of the Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences. His research focuses on developing and studying mathematical models of geophysical fluids and Earth-system processes. He has worked on convection in fluids with one or two buoyancy-changing scalars, on vortex dynamics, time series analysis, granular flows and ecological modeling, with a particular interest on Lagrangian methods for modeling marine plankton. Since he joined NYUAD he has developed a keen interest in understanding the environment of the Gulf region.

Co-Principal Investigator(s)

Farah Shamout

Assistant Professor Emerging Scholar of Computer Engineering

Shafer Smith

Professor of Mathematics and Atmosphere/Ocean Science

Researchers

NameTitle
Zouhair LachkarSenior Research Scientist
Geórgenes CavalcanteResearch Scientist
Basit KhanResearch Scientist
Rahul PaiPostdoctoral Associate
Stefanos GeorgiadisPostdoctoral Associate
Muhammed NabeelResearch Engineer
Rita BentoResearch Associate
Thomas GrevesseResearch Associate
Sreejith KottuparambilResearch Associate
Nanda Kishore Reddy BusireddyPostdoctoral Associate
Arah NaridaPostdoctoral Associate
Subrota HalderPostdoctoral Associate
Elisephane IrankundaPostdoctoral Associate
Kaitlin LescoPostdoctoral Associate
Yohan LouisPostdoctoral Associate
Brian StrehlowAssociate Research Scientist
Oliver FarrellMarine Field Research Technician
Christian LewesMarine Field Research Technician
Iulia BibireResearch Technician
Muhammad Hassan KhanResearch Assistant
Mohamed AbuhlaiqaResearch Assistant
Georgina MatthewsResearch Assistant
Louie BuccellaResearch Assistant
Pearl RwauyaScientific Data Analyst