CW3E Welcomes Duncan Axisa

March 17, 2021

Dr. Duncan Axisa joined CW3E as a Program Manager in March 2021. He will support senior management in leadership and direction of the Center’s growing research and applications capabilities, by assisting in developing and executing program research goals. Duncan will provide critical support to the Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) program: a key activity that develops new science, technology, and numerical modeling tools to aid future reservoir operations for flood control, water supply, and ecosystems.

Duncan has extensive experience leading scientific programs, multi-institutional collaborative efforts to design major experiments and research centered on aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. After spending a decade at the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) Hydrometeorological Applications Program and several years in a scientific company, Duncan has served the science community in highly collaborative, entrepreneurial, and externally funded research and technology transfer roles. As a scientist, Duncan’s experience focuses on measurements of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation properties, and in evaluating the performance of numerical models. Among his main scientific accomplishments are measurements of the impacts of pollution aerosols on clouds in the Sierra Nevada, characterization of aerosol-cloud interactions in premonsoon and monsoon clouds in South Asia, microphysical interactions of dust with pollution and clouds in Saudi Arabia, observations and modeling of convection-associated dust outbreaks over the Arabian Peninsula, measurements of newly formed particles in the mid-latitude upper troposphere, and source identification of ice nucleating particles. He has participated in over 30 field campaigns including NASA- and NSF-funded studies of aerosol impacts on clouds and precipitation. As a capacity builder Duncan has provided support to developing countries and water stressed communities to help centers establish their own research base. As an innovator he has developed new sensing technologies and holds a patent on intelligent systems.

Duncan holds a BEd from University of Malta, BS in Meteorology and MS in Atmospheric Science from Texas A&M University, and a PhD in Engineering from University of Denver.