LAREEF ZUBAIR
International Research Institute for Climate and Society,
The Earth Institute at Columbia University,
P.O.Box 1000, (Street: 61 9W), Palisades, NY 10964-8000, U.S.A.
Phone: (1)-845-680-4424    Fax: (1)-845-680-4864    Email: lareef@iri.columbia.edu

Education
Ph.D: Yale University, Engineering, 1993.
• Thesis title: "Studies in Turbulence using Wavelet Analysis for data compression and scale separation".
M.Sc: Yale University, Engineering, 1990.
• Awarded University Fellowship, 1989-90.
B.Sc: University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Engineering, 1987.
• E.O.E. Pereira Gold Medal for the "Best All-Round Student", First Class Honors, Valedictorian, Manamperi prize for the best senior research project.  

Work Experience
International Research Institute for Climate and Society, January 2000 to-date.
     Associate Research Scientist, Decision Systems, Climate Adaptation (2002-todate):
    Postdoctoral Scientist, Climate Applications (2000-2001):
• Research on climate of central Indian Ocean, hydro-climatic impacts, climate impacts on hazards, environment, water resources, agriculture, health and energy.   
• Awarded grants from IRI, START, NOAA, Earth Institute.
• Management of projects on water resources, plantation agriculture, human-elephant conflict, natural disasters, and the development of early warning for malaria risk.  
• Supervised 15 project staff over the period.
• Supervised 4 Masters theses and 2 undergraduate theses.
Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka, June 1997 – October 1999.
     Research Fellow, Computational Mathematics:
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, May 1995 – May 1997.
     Senior Lecturer in Civil and Mechanical Engineering:
     Deputy Coordinator, Centre for Environmental Studies:
Yale University, U.S.A., September 1993 - March 1995.
     Post-Doctoral Associate,
     Tutor in Mathematics and Science, Jonathan Edwards College.
    
Professional Activities
•    Member, Indian Meteorological Society, Royal Meteorological Society, American Meteorological Society, American Association of Environmental Engineering Professors American Geophysical Union, Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, and Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka.  
•    Founder, 1998-to date, Sri Lanka Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology Network.

 
Publications
IN JOURNALS and BOOKS
•    Jun 2006: Zubair, L., Ralapanawe V., Tennakone, U., Yahiya, Z., and Perera, R., Natural Disaster Risks in Sri Lanka: Mapping Hazards and Risk Hotspots, in Natural Disaster Hotspots Case Studies, Washington, DC: World Bank 2006.  
•    Apr 2006: Zubair, L. and C.F. Ropelewski, The strengthening relationship of ENSO and the North-East Monsoon rainfall over Sri Lanka and Southern India, Journal of Climate, 19 (8): 1567–1575.
•    Jul 2005, Modernization of Sri Lanka’s Traditional Irrigation System and Sustainability, Science, Technology and Society, 10 (20): 161-195.
•    Nov 2004: May 2003 disaster in Sri Lanka and Cyclone 01-B in the Bay of Bengal, Natural Hazards, 33: 303-318, 2004.  
•    Sep 2003: Sensitivity of Kelani streamflow in Sri Lanka to ENSO, Hydrological Processes, 17 (12) 2439-2448.
•    Jan 2003: Zubair, L., S. C. Rao and T. Yamagata, The Influence of the Indian Ocean Dipole on the Sri Lankan Maha rainfall, Geophysical Research Letters,10 (2): 1063-1066
•    Jan 2003: ENSO influences on Mahaweli streamflow in Sri Lanka, International Journal of Climatology, 23(1):91-102.   
•    Feb 2002: El Nino Influences on Rice Production in Sri Lanka, International Journal of Climatology, 22 (2):249-260
•    Jan 2002: Diurnal and Seasonal Wind Climate at Sita Eliya, Sri Lanka, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 71 (1-2): 119-127.  
•    Sep 2001: An Assessment of Environmental Impact Assessment in Sri Lanka, Environmental Impact Analysis Review, 21(5): 469-478.
•    Aug 1995: Characterization of Intermittency in Turbulence, Physics of Fluids, 7 (8) pp. 2089.
•    Dec 1991: Zubair, L., K.R. Sreenivasan and M.V. Wickerhauser,Compression of turbulence data and images using wavelet-packets, In Studies in Turbulence, Springer-Verlag, eds. T. Gadsky, S. Sirkar and C. Speziale. pp. 489-513.

IN PRESS, REVIEW, PREPARATION
•    Aug 2006: Zubair, L. and J. Chandimala, Epochal Changes in ENSO-Streamflow relations in Sri Lanka, in press, Journal of Hydrometeorology.
•    Aug 2006: Peiris, S., Hansen, J., and Zubair, L., Use of Seasonal Climate Information to Predict Coconut Production in Sri Lanka, International Journal of Climatology, provisionally accepted.  
•    Aug 2006: Zubair, L., M. Siriwardhana and J. Chandimala, Predictability of Sri Lanka rainfall based on ENSO, in second revision, International Journal of Climatology.  
•    Aug 2006: J. Chandimala and L. Zubair, 2006, ENSO based predictions for Water Resources Management in Sri Lanka, in second revision, Journal of Hydrology.
•    Aug 2006: L. Zubair, O. Ndiaye, M.N. Ward, J. Chandimala. R. Perera, and V. Ralapanawe, Prediction of seasonal precipitation at fine-scale grids by statistical corrections for systematic errors in a GCM, in preparation, Journal of Climate.
•    Aug 2006: S. Mahanama, R. Koster, L. Zubair and R. Riehl, On the predictability of seasonal streamflow with a Land Surface Model: Water and energy budget studies for Sri Lanka, in preparation, Journal of Hydrometeorology.
•    Aug 2006: Zubair, L., Ashraj, Y., Chandimala, J., Connor, S.C., Galapaththy, G., Razick, S., Siriwardhana, M.S., Tennakoon, U., Yahiya, Z. and Yang, H., ENSO association with Malaria Epidemics in Sri Lanka, in preparation.
•    Aug 2004: Zubair, L., M. Siriwardhana and J. Chandimala, Climate Change Assessments for Sri Lanka, in preparation.
•    Aug 2006: Lyon, B., L. Zubair, V. Ralapanawe and Z. Yahiya,  Fine-Scale Evaluation of Drought Hazard and Impacts in Sri Lanka, in preparation.

IN REGIONAL JOURNALS  
•    Sep 2005: with R. Perera and Z. Yahiya, Was the 2002/03 Maha bumper harvest due to El Nino? Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, XXXVIII, (4): 63 – 70.
•    Apr 2004: Towards Developing Weather and Climate Prediction for Sri Lanka, Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, XXXVII, 2:53-58.
•    July 2003: with U. Tennakone, Z. Yahiya, J. Chandimala & M.R.A. Siraj, What led to the May 2003 Floods? Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, XXXVI (3): 51 – 56.
•    May 2002: Development of Meteorological Studies in Sri Lanka, Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 35 (2): 14-18.
•    May 1999: Energy Conservation in Government Institutions, Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp 40.
•    Oct 1998: Diurnal and seasonal variation of surface winds at Hambantota, Journal of the National Science Council, Sri Lanka, 25(3).235-245p.

SELECTED POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
•    Jul 2004: Empowering the Vulnerable, TIEMPO, 52:3-6, University of East Anglia, UK, highlighted in SciDev.net on August 19, 2004 as “Communities facing climate change need local science.”
•    Jun 2002: Saving Weather Data, TIEMPO, 49:16-22, University of East Anglia, UK.
•    May 2002: Questions for Climate Science from the Mahaweli Water Managers, Frontier Newsletter, Volume 19.

PROJECT REPORTS
•    Jul 2004, 2005, 2006: L. Zubair (PI), S.J. Connor, N. Ward, J. Shaman, M. Stieglitz, M. Cane, H. Yang, G. N. L. Galapaththy, S. Mahanama, H.M. Faizal, U. Tennakoon, Z. Yahiya, S. Razick, M. Sirwardhana, First, Second and Third Annual Reports on Analysis of Impacts of Climate Variability on malaria transmission and the development of an early warning system, Progress Report to NOAA/OGP.
•    Sep 2005: L. Zubair (PI), J. Hansen, Z. Yahiya, M. Siriwardhana, J. Chandimala, S. Razick, U. Tennakoon, K. Ariyaratne, I. Bandara, H. Bulathsinhala, T. Abeyratne and T.D.M.A. Samuel, Adaptation and Impact Assessment to Climate Change (AIACC) project on Plantation Agriculture in Sri Lanka, Component incorporated into final report submitted to START secretariat.
•    Jul 2005, L. Zubair (PI), B. Blumenthal, O. Ndiaye, R. Perera, N.Ward, J. Chandimala, V. Ralapanawe, U. Tennakoon, M.R.A. Siraj, Z. Yahiya, H. Manthrithillake and W.L. Hendawitharna, Evaluation of Climate and Habitat Interactions Affecting the Conservation and Management of Asian Elephants in South-East Sri Lanka, submitted to the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction.  
•    Feb 2005: L. Zubair (PI), R. Perera, B. Lyon, V. Ralapanawe, U. Tennakoon, U. Tennakoon, Z. Yahiya, J. Chandimala and  S. Razick   Fine Scale Natural Hazard Risk and Vulnerability Identification Informed by Climate in Sri Lanka, Submitted to International Research Institute for Climate Prediction.

 
THESES SUPERVISED
•    N. Fernando, Climate Impacts on Water Scarcity in the Deduru Oya Basin of Sri Lanka, M.A., Climate and Society, Columbia University, August 2006.
•    Warren, L. K., Predicting Malaria Risk Using Climate Parameters: Evaluation of Methods, Senior Thesis, Columbia University, May 2006.
•    Reyes, L. V., Vulnerability to Malaria in Sri Lanka, Senior Thesis, Barnard College, May 2006.

THESES CO-SUPERVISED
•    N. Aloysius, Climate Change Impacts on Evapo-transpiration in India, M.Sc,  Earth System Science and Policy, University of North Dakota, June 2006.
•    H. Bulathsinhala, Climate Forecasting for Water and Environmental Management in Sri Lanka, M.Sc., Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, March 2005.
•    K. Ariyaratne, Numerical Model for Simulating Shoreline Change, M.Sc, Oceanography, Post Graduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, May 2005.  

Full CV