- Pamela and Vasco McCoy, Jr. Professor of Oceanography and Applied Physics
- Area Dean, Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Eli Tziperman works in climate dynamics, trying to understand physical processes that affect Earth's climate on time scales of a few years to millions of years.
Climate variability results from a rich set of nonlinear, sometimes chaotic, physical interactions of the oceans, atmosphere and at times the biosphere as well. Often the very basic questions are still unanswered in this field. E.g. why is El Nino irregular? Why are there ice ages? How far in advance can we predict the total precipitation of the next rainy season?
This clearly makes it a fascinating field to work in for students with a physics background who are interested in applying physical/ mathematical principles to the study of the natural world. Climate research also has, of course, an applied aspect directly affecting our life.
Accordingly, we work, for example, on improving El Nino prediction skill using advanced methods for combining realistic models and observations.
Positions & Employment
Harvard University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- August 2003: Professor of Oceanography & Applied Physics, Harvard University
- 1998-2003: Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science
- 1994-1998: Associate Prof.,Department of Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science
- 1990-1993: Senior Scientist, Department of Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science
- 1989-1990: Scientist, The Weizmann Institute of Science
- Professor E.D. Bergman Memorial Award, 1990, Israeli-US Binational Science foundation
- Alon Scholarship, 1989, Israeli Academic Planning and Grant Committee (VATAT)
- Carl-Gustav Rossby Award for the most outstanding thesis submitted to the Center for Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, MIT, in the academic year 1986-1987
- Meirbaum Oceanographic Scholarships, Hebrew University, 1984, 1985, 1987