Biography

Dr. Pouya Vahmani is an Urban Environmental Scientist in the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division (CESD) in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) with expertise in urban hydro-climate modeling, climate change at regional and local scales (dynamical downscaling), extreme weather, and climate adaptation. His research uses a range of numerical models including regional climate models, land surface models, urban canopy models, building energy models, and hydrological models, informed by rich remotely sensed and ground-based observations to further the scientific understanding of critical elements in achieving sustainable development.

His recent research themes include process-based urban hydro-climate modeling with applications in flood risk management and ground water recharge in cities, extreme heat and energy demand in cities, municipal water conservation and heat mitigation, and heat mitigation and climate adaptation in urban areas. Before Berkeley Lab, he was a research associate at the University of Southern California (USC), where he focused on the interactions between regional climate and urban heat mitigation and water conservation strategies as well as utility of satellite-based information in the regional climate modeling frameworks.

Prior to USC, Dr. Vahmani was a NASA fellow and a graduate student in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he got his PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources (major) and Atmospheric Sciences (minor). Dr. Vahmani has also been a visiting scholar in University of California Irvine (UCI) and Colorado School of Mines.