Meet the Team • FASTA

FASTA is developed by a world-class international research partnership

The FASTA team is a partnership between the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the University of Leeds, working with African meteorologists and National Meteorological Services.

The team has built on international research carried out by the Global Challenges Research Fund funded African SWIFT programme.

Project Management/ Development Team

Professor Doug Parker

FASTA Director
Professor of Meteorology
_{National Centre for Atmospheric Science/ University of Leeds}

Meteorologist studying the physics and fluid dynamics of the atmosphere. Investigating the dynamics of weather systems to explain their role in the climate system. Contributing to improving weather and climate predictions, and making these predictions more relevant to society.

Denise Groves

FASTA Project Manager
_{National Centre for Atmospheric Science}

Business Management Graduate. Research Administrator on GCRF African SWIFT. Passionate about bringing reliable forecasting to the African people.

Dr Shona Smith

Research and Innovation Development Manager
_{Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds}

Working with academics and researchers, developing opportunities for new collaborations and interdisciplinary research.

Nick Jefferson

Mobile Application Developer
_{National Centre for Atmospheric Science}

Experienced software developer with a background in commercial, public sector and start-up environments. iOS and Android apps at Manchester, Sheffield, and Leeds universities.

James Groves

IT Lead
_{National Centre for Atmospheric Science}

Atmospheric Science IT specialist with over 20 years experience working on projects in the Atmospheric science field.

Richard Rigby

Software Development Scientist
_{Centre for Environmental Modelling and Computation, University of Leeds}

Software developer improving research software outputs; providing near-real time weather data (nowcasting) and automated synoptic plotting for operational forecasting.

Dr Mark Richardson

Technical Head
_{Centre for Environmental Modelling and Computation, University of Leeds}

Computational expert helping environmental researchers prepare simulations, processing data from various sensor types, providing tools for data analysis and for displaying research outcome to a wider audience.

Dr Alex Roberts

Technical Science Lead
_{National Centre for Atmospheric Science}

Research scientist with over a decade of experience working on the meteorology of Africa. Specialisms include the dynamics of deep convective storms, high impact weather, meteorological satellite data and numerical weather prediction.

Governance Board

Professor John Marsham

Met Office Joint chair
_{University of Leeds}

Meteorologist researching convective storms and rainfall, with a focus on the tropics, especially Africa. Leading the East African project of the Future Climate for Africa programme and the Nowcasting work within GCRF African SWIFT

Dr Bethany Woodhams

Post Doc in Atmospheric Dynamics
_{Karlsruhe Institute of Technology}

Researching convection over Africa and its predictability within numerical weather prediction models, with a focus on Lake Victoria.

Professor Andy Dougill

Dean of the Sciences
_{University of York}

Applied environmental change researcher & experienced academic leader with over 30 years of experience integrating across disciplines including climate services, soil science and environmental social sciences

Dr Mariane Diop-Kane

Programme Manager, AMCOMET Secretariat
_WMO

Meteorologist with a long experience in forecasting and research into the African monsoon and weather systems. Former Director of Meteorology of ANACIM, Senegal following experience at ACMAD, as Head of the Prediction Department. Involved in various African research programmes such as WAMP,
AMMA and SWIFT

Dr Thorwald Stein

Associate Professor in Clouds
_{University of Reading}

Focusing research on developing observational strategies to better understand and predict the life cycle of convective storms

Professor Alan Blyth

Professor of Atmospheric Science
_{University of Leeds / National Centre for Atmospheric Science}

Expertise in Cloud Science

Professor Benjamin Lamptey

Africa Co-Lead
Cheney Visiting Professor of Meteorology
_{University of Leeds / West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use}

African Scholar conducting world-class research in meteorology and climate change. Contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)