Akimasa Sumi

Project Professor, Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science

Profile

Prof. Akimasa Sumi received his Ba.D and M.S. in physics and his D.Sci in meteorology from University of Tokyo in 1971, 1973, and 1985, respectively. In 1973, Prof. Sumi joined the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Tokyo District Observatory as a member of the technical staff. From 1975-1979 at the agency, he joined the Electronic Computation Center. From 1979-1981, Prof. Sumi served as a research associate in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Hawaii. Then from 1981 – 1985, he returned to the Electronic Computation Center at the Japan Meteorological Agency as Chief Technical Officer. Then in 1985 he became associate professor at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Tokyo where he remained in that post until 1991. From 1991 he became professor of the Center for Climate System Research at the University. And since 1994, Prof. Sumi has been director of the Center for Climate System Research. Throughout Prof. Sumi’s professional career he has also served as a leading member of various committees, such as: the Joint Scientific Committee of WCRP; the CLIVAR Monsoon Panel and Scientific Steering Groups; the TOGA-COARE Science Group and TOGA-Scientific Steering Groups; Vice Chairman of the TAO Implementation Panel. Currently, Dr. Sumi continues on as a Board Member of the Meteorological Society of Japan, Program Scientist of ADEOS-2, a member of JOINT TRMM Science Team, and as Coordinator of the University of Tokyo for AGS (Alliance for Global Sustainability).

Research interest

His major research topics are numerical weather prediction, Monsoon dynamics, tropical meteorology, climate dynamics including ENSO and global warming simulation
His awards include the Yamamoto Award (1983) and Fujiwara Award (1993)