About

Research Profile

I am a climate scientist and physical geographer interested in how climate variability, extreme events, and land-surface processes interact to shape environmental systems and human vulnerability. My research examines the coupled relationships among the atmosphere, land surface, water cycle, and terrestrial ecosystems, and how these interactions influence risks to agriculture, water resources, and ecosystem resilience under a changing climate.

To address these questions, I integrate Earth system modeling, climate projections, geospatial analysis, remote sensing, statistical methods, and machine learning. My work spans scales from local landscapes to continental systems and draws on tools including RegCM4, WRF, WRF-Hydro, the Community Land Model, CMIP6, and CORDEX-CORE ensembles. Across my research, I seek to combine physical understanding with quantitative analysis to better understand climate extremes, land-atmosphere interactions, and environmental change.

What motivates me most is the opportunity to transform complex climate data into knowledge that supports better decisions. Whether studying drought, heat extremes, hydrological change, land-cover dynamics, or agricultural systems, I am driven by questions that connect rigorous climate science with real-world environmental challenges and opportunities for adaptation and resilience.

Research Interests

A simple question motivates my work: how do climate variability and extreme events influence the environmental systems on which society depends?

I investigate this question through a combination of climate modeling, remote sensing, field observations, geospatial analysis, statistical methods, and machine learning. My goal is not only to understand the processes driving environmental change, but also to produce knowledge that can inform adaptation, risk reduction, and long-term sustainability.

Key Areas of Interest: - Climate variability and extremes - Droughts, heatwaves, compound hazards, hydroclimatic variability, and climate risk - Land-atmosphere interactions - Vegetation-climate feedbacks, land-cover change, hydrological processes, and environmental system dynamics - Environmental change and resilience - Climate impacts on agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, and human-environment systems - Climate modeling & analysis — Developing and analyzing simulations using regional models (WRF, RegCM4) and large ensembles (CMIP6, CORDEX-CORE) for robust geospatial diagnostics - Geospatial and Earth system science - Climate modeling, remote sensing, GIScience, machine learning, and large-scale environmental data analysis - Climate data science — Leveraging Python, R, and MATLAB, alongside geospatial tools (ArcGIS, ArcPy), for processing and analyzing large-scale atmospheric datasets

Research Vision

My long-term goal is to build an interdisciplinary research program that advances understanding of how climate variability, compound extremes, and land-surface change interact across environmental systems. I am particularly interested in developing approaches that combine Earth system science, geospatial analytics, and emerging data-driven methods to improve climate-risk assessment and support adaptation in a rapidly changing world. What excites me most is translating climate science into actionable knowledge. Whether for agricultural systems, water-resource management, ecosystem stewardship, or climate adaptation planning, I aim to produce research that not only advances scientific understanding but also supports informed decision-making. I am equally passionate about mentoring students, building collaborative research communities, and helping prepare the next generation of scientists to address complex environmental challenges.

Current Position

Postdoctoral Research Scholar Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University January 2024 – Present

Lead research integrating climate and hydrological data for agricultural and environmental modeling across local, regional, and global scales using CMIP6 and CORDEX simulations. Apply machine learning, geospatial analysis, and climate data science to investigate climate hazards and environmental risk. Develop scalable computational frameworks for analyzing large climate and Earth-system datasets. Convening Chair, AGU 2026 Session: AI-Ensemble Modeling of Weather Extremes on Agricultural Production Systems. Co-convened AGU sessions on African hydrology and hydroclimatology in three consecutive years (AGU24, AGU25, and AGU26).

Academic path

West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) — Akure, Nigeria Research Fellow & Co-Principal Investigator · January 2021 – December 2024

Co-led the BMBF-funded CONCERT project on greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation under climate and land-use change in West Africa, using a coupled WRF/WRF-Hydro Earth system model alongside eddy-covariance flux measurements. Taught postgraduate courses in statistical meteorology, hydrological modeling, and natural hazard assessment.

University of Warsaw, Institute of Geophysics — Warsaw, Poland Visiting Scientist / Technical Specialist · August 2021 – March 2022

Air quality assessment using field measurements, lidar remote sensing (ADR-PollyXT), and data-driven analytical approaches.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT — IMK-IFU) — Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Postdoctoral Research Scholar · September 2016 – September 2017

Produced high-resolution WRF (12 km) and CLM climate simulations for the WASCAL project. Key contributor to the WASCAL ensemble dataset published in Earth System Science Data.

(Full appointment history — including NASRDA, University of Cape Town, and early teaching roles at FUTA and Elizade University — is available in my CV or on ORCID.)

Education

Ph.D., Meteorology and Climate Science — Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria (2013–2016). Thesis: Investigating Land Cover Types for Mitigating Climate Change Impacts in West Africa. Funded by a BMBF Doctoral Scholarship.
M.Sc., Physics (Space Physics) — FUTA, Nigeria (2010–2012)
B.Tech. (Hons.), Meteorology — FUTA, Nigeria (2001–2006)

(See the full coursework for both degrees.)

Current focus beyond research

Founder & Director, ASCENDE Network — a global, women-centered mentorship community connecting early-career climate scientists across Africa, Europe, and North America
Associate Editor, Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health (Springer Nature), 2025–present
Peer reviewer for International Journal of Climatology, Environmental Research Letters, GeoHealth, and several other journals