At the 17th session of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Executive Council held in Geneva from 20 to 29 June 2018, Dr. Chang-Eui Park, a research assistant professor in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), was announced as the winner of the WMO Research Award for Young Scientist. The aim of this award is to encourage young scientists to undertake outstanding research work in all fields of meteorology and hydrology. This award was first made in 1967 and has been given to only one young scientist under age 35 in the world annually since 1970. It has been granted to young scientists from more than 20 different countries. Dr. Park is the first person who has received this award as Korean while working at SUSTech.

Dr. Chang-Eui Park

Dr. Park was honored for his outstanding contributions to global change research as the principal author of the paper “Keeping global warming within 1.5 °C warming constrains emergence of aridification published in Nature Climate Change in 2018. This research highlights that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, the final goal of Paris Agreement 2015, will significantly reduce risks of aridity increase such as desertification, severe drought and wildfire, as compared to 2 °C warming.

About SUSTech | School of Environmental Science and Engineering.  The School was established in 2015 to provide a new platform for conducting cutting-edge research and for training a new generation of environmental scientists, engineers and managers who are interdisciplinary, innovative and global-thinking. Currently, the school has about 80 full-time faculty member and post-doctoral research staff in three major disciplines: environmental science and engineering, hydrology and water resources, and global environmental change.