PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fiaz Ahmed

Fiaz Ahmed is an atmospheric scientist whose work connects machine learning with climate modeling. Raised in Bangalore, he studied chemical engineering at NIT Karnataka and published his first paper in 2015 using radar and satellite observations to study tropical precipitation before earning a PhD in atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M in 2016. At UCLA, he researched tropical convection, and his 2018 precipitation-buoyancy paper received the Turco Exceptional Research Paper Award. He coauthored ClimSim, a climate dataset that won a 2023 NeurIPS Outstanding Paper Award, and ClimSim-Online, which added a pipeline for testing machine-learning models in operational climate simulators; in September 2025, he presented on tropical-convection diagnostics at a US CLIVAR webinar. As of October 2026, he is an assistant project scientist in David Neelin's UCLA group.

Works
62
Citations
1,061
h-index
17

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2007–2011

    Chemical engineering at NIT Karnataka

    Raised in Bangalore, Ahmed starts chemical engineering at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in 2007 and earns a BTech in 2011.

  2. 2015–2016

    A PhD and precipitation paper

    He completes an internship at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology on Indian monsoons before studying atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M with dissertation adviser Courtney Schumacher. In 2015, he publishes his first paper using ground radar and satellite data to refine the relationship between column moisture and surface precipitation. He earns his PhD in 2016.

  3. 2018

    A Turco research paper award

    He receives UCLA’s Richard P. and Linda S. Turco Exceptional Research Paper Award in 2018 for “Reverse engineering the tropical precipitation-buoyancy relationship,” published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

  4. 2022–2026

    A DOE project on deep convection

    From 2022 to 2026, Ahmed serves as the UCLA principal investigator for the DOE project “Thermodynamic and Non-thermodynamic Controls on Deep Convection in ARM Observations.” J. David Neelin is a UCLA co-principal investigator.

  5. 2023–2025

    ClimSim and its online extension

    In 2023, he coauthors ClimSim, a global multi-scale dataset with 5.7 billion pairs of multivariate inputs and outputs for hybrid physics-ML research; NeurIPS names it an Outstanding Paper. In 2025, he coauthors ClimSim-Online, an extended version with a cross-platform, containerized pipeline to integrate ML models into operational climate simulators for hybrid testing. The paper implements machine-learning and hybrid-simulator baselines to examine how to build stable, skillful emulators.

  6. By 2024

    Postdoctoral research at UCLA

    By 2024, Ahmed is an assistant researcher at UCLA. His first postdoctoral project studies land-ocean differences in precipitation and water vapor, and this work leads to his precipitation-buoyancy research on tropical convection.

  7. September 2025

    A tropical-convection webinar

    In September 2025, he presents “Process-oriented diagnostics for tropical convection within the Model Diagnostics Task Force” at a US CLIVAR Process Study Webinar.

  8. As of October 2026

    Assistant project scientist at UCLA

    He is an assistant project scientist in David Neelin's group at UCLA.

Career

  1. Since 2016University of California, Los AngelesPrincipal Investigator
  2. Ministry of Earth SciencesIntern

Education

  1. 2016Texas A&M UniversityPhD
  2. 2011National Institute of Technology KarnatakaBTech

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Fiaz Ahmed. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  4. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Fiaz Ahmed yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Fiaz Ahmed: Investigator of Deep Convection asr.science.energy.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Student Awards | Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences atmos.ucla.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Projects – Schiro Lab schiro.evsc.virginia.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. NeurIPS Poster ClimSim: A large multi-scale dataset for hybrid physics-ML climate emulation neurips.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. ClimSim-Online: A Large Multi-Scale Dataset and Framework for Hybrid Physics-ML Climate Emulation jmlr.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Past Webinars | US CLIVAR usclivar.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Fiaz Ahmed | Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences atmos.ucla.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.