In a significant advancement for both global climate science and Saudi Arabia’s research community, a team from KAUST has been awarded the 2024 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling. This prestigious recognition highlights the transformative potential of high-performance computing in addressing the current challenges of climate change.
The prize-winning team, spearheaded by KAUST Faculty and Researchers Sameh Abdulah, Marc G. Genton, David E. Keyes, Zubair Khalid, Hatem Ltaief, Yan Song, Georgiy L. Stenchikov, and Ying Sun, also included collaborators from other renowned institutions. Together, they developed an exascale climate emulator that significantly enhances the resolution of climate models while minimizing computational costs and data storage requirements. Leveraging the power of a supercomputer, the emulator can generate high-resolution climate simulations without the extensive resource demands typically associated with such detailed models, representing a leap forward in making detailed climate predictions more accessible and efficient.
The team’s achievement directly supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly contributing to SDG 9, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, and SDG 13, Climate Action, by showcasing how cutting-edge computational technology can help mitigate and adapt to climate change through the development of more accurate, efficient, and detailed climate projections.
Moreover, this recognition supports national efforts to place Saudi Arabia in the map by being the first institution in the Middle East to win an ACM Gordon Bell Prize, setting its position as a global leader in high-performance computing and climate science, aligning with the Kingdom’s development vision. It also underscores the Kingdom’s commitment to addressing environmental challenges through sustainable development while fostering international collaborations that amplify the Kingdom’s research capabilities on the world stage.
The team’s accomplishment not only advances the fields of climate research, machine learning, and AI-driven forecasting and prediction methods, but also demonstrates the critical role of scientific innovation in policy making.
To learn more about this work and its implications for the future of climate science, visit the official announcement at the ACM Gordon Bell Prize website.
