In Memoriam

We are deeply sorry to hear that our friend and long-term visitor Mohamed Omar passed away on the 24th of April.

Mohamed worked for the Egyptian Meteorological Authority. He then joined the King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Jeddah, where he substantially contributed to the development of the KAU Climate Model (referred to as Saudi-KAU), which is used for climate predictability studies as well as for operational seasonal forecasting. In September 2019, Mohamed joined CMCC in Bologna (Italy) to work on a Mediterranean forecasting system.

Mohamed first visited ICTP in 2009, where he participated in the Targeted Training Activity: Predictability of Weather and Climate. Since then he visited nearly every year, with occasional longer stays of several months, to discuss issues related to climate variability and modeling. During one of these visits, Mohamed finished his PhD thesis on the analysis of the variability in the Saudi-KAU model, and obtained his PhD in 2017 from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Mohamed also contributed to the climate models currently used in the ESP section and he was always available to help and guide students and postdocs. His last visit to ICTP was in January 2020. Finally, from the personal point of, everyone he met appreciated his open and kind personality. Our thoughts go to his wife and children.