Fourth Meeting of the DS-I Africa Consortium
16 - 22 November 2024
The Ravenala Attitude Hotel, Mauritius

Dr Christopher Jack - Participant

Developing data science solutions to mitigate the health impacts of climate change in Africa: the HE2AT Center (Co-PI)

Christopher has a background in computer science and ocean/atmospheric science with particular expertise in high performance computing and computing platforms and dynamical and statistical modeling and analysis. Over the past 10 years Christopher has also built extensive experience in science-society engagement and communications, and more recently, decision making under uncertainty and multi/trans-disciplinary research. This experience has been developed through a mix of consulting/advisory activities as well as academic research activities in partnerships with a wide network of collaborators across the region and internationally. His current research activities are focused on the intersection of urban contexts and climate risk through projects such as UrbanARK and FRACTAL, where his background and experience in fundamental climate science and modeling, as well as his experience in decision support and capacity development, come together. Christopher is deputy director of CSAG, supporting and working alongside Bruce Hewitson in order to provide strategic oversight and direction to the group. Christopher continues to provide strategic oversight of the units High Performance Computing (HPC) facility and big data storage services as well providing broader leadership within the group. He is also always involved a wide range of research and consulting project activities and leadership. Christopher's passion is working with and across diverse disciplines and areas of expertise in complex problem spaces, hence his current interest in urban climate resilience in developing contexts.