RESEARCH VISIT TO THE EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM-RANGE WEATHER FORECASTS: NEFELI MAKRYGIANNI

Cardiff Cohort 4 student Nefeli Makrygianni based herself at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, UK for her research visit. Nefeli’s industrial supervisor is Dr Jean Bidlot, Senior Scientist in ECMWF’s Earth System Modelling Section. Nefeli therefore took the opportunity to work closely with Dr Bidlot at ECMWF between October-December 2021, following a period of what she considered to be slow progress with her PhD during the Coronavirus pandemic.

During her time at ECMWF Nefeli benefited from access to additional satellite data to validate her model results and refine her project analysis, which she incorporated into her thesis. Nefeli also started working on a journal paper.

Nefeli feels that being at ECMWF gave her valuable insight into the operation of a major research centre and enabled her to network and make new connections. The interactions during her research visit were also important personally, as they followed a period of social isolation due to the pandemic. In addition to the planned joint paper, it is envisaged that future collaborations between Cardiff University and ECMWF may follow due to the new contacts made.