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MIT EAPS Directory

Paul O'Gorman

Professor

Website

Paul O’Gorman’s research interests are in the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, moist convection, and climate change. Recent work has focused on the response of precipitation extremes to climate change, the effect of latent heating on atmospheric circulations, and the use of machine learning to improve climate models.

He earned his PhD in aeronautics with a minor in applied mathematics in 2004 at the California Institute of Technology. He also holds an MSc in High-Performance Computing and a BA in Theoretical Physics from Trinity College, Dublin. He joined the MIT faculty in 2008.

Publications

Select publications include:

S. Pfahl, P. A. O’Gorman & E. M. Fischer (2017), Understanding the regional pattern of projected future changes in extreme precipitation, Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/nclimate3287

Dwyer, J. G., & O’Gorman, P. A. (2017), Moist Formulations of the Eliassen–Palm Flux and Their Connection to the Surface Westerlies, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 74(2), 513-530, doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-16-0111.1

Marotzke, J., Jakob, C., Bony, S., Dirmeyer, P.A., O'Gorman, P.A., Hawkins, E., Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S., Le Quéré, C., Nowicki, S., Paulavets, K. and Seneviratne, S.I., (2017). Climate research must sharpen its view. Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/nclimate3206

Stansifer, E.M., O'Gorman, P.A. and Holt, J.I., (2016). Accurate computation of moist available potential energy with the Munkres algorithm. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, doi: 10.1002/qj.2921

Gao, X., Schlosser, C. A., O’Gorman, P., Monier, E., & Entekhabi, D. (2016), 21st Century Changes in US Regional Heavy Precipitation Frequency Based on Resolved Atmospheric Patterns, Journal of Climate, (2016), doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0544.1

Byrne, M. P., & O’Gorman, P. A. (2016), Understanding decreases in land relative humidity with global warming: conceptual model and GCM simulations, Journal of Climate, 29(24), 9045-9061, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0351.1

Schär, C., Ban, N., Fischer, E.M., Rajczak, J., Schmidli, J., Frei, C., Giorgi, F., Karl, T.R., Kendon, E.J., Tank, A.M.K. and O’Gorman, P.A., (2016). Percentile indices for assessing changes in heavy precipitation events. Climatic Change, 137(1-2), 201-216.2016, doi: 10.1007/s10584-016-1669-2

Markus G. Donat, Andrew L. Lowry, Lisa V. Alexander, Paul A. O’Gorman & Nicola Maher (2016), More extreme precipitation in the world’s dry and wet regions, Nature Climate Change (2016), online March 7, doi: 10.1038/nclimate2941

Google Scholar Profile

Awards

Teaching Prize, MIT School of Science (2018) | Victor P. Starr Career Development Chair, MIT (2010-2013) | Minchin Prize for Mathematics and Physics, Trinity College Dublin (1997)