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In governance, female sue a successful career numerical weather for Q: Do you still have time
participation in WMO in science meeting my the first few years. Then to carry out research?
constituent bodies still professional aspira- in the late 1980s we ente-
does not exceed 20% on tions. I was supposed to red an era when satellites, Unfortunately not, now
average, and the picture become a professional especially meteorological that my role is to support
is not too much different pianist, like my mother. satellites, went digital. In global international col-
at the national level. But However, I understood the early days satellite in- laboration in meteoro-
whereas all this exper- at quite an early age that formation was transmit- logy. At the WMO I had
tise is extremely valuable I was not meant for a ca- ted as facsimiled pictures the privilege of working
in policy- and decision- reer in music and went on so that the forecaster with the global scientific
making for disaster and to study geophysics and could observe the synop- community on a number
climate risk resilience, geography. It was really tic situation, cloud for- of programmes of his-
women are still too few my passion because ever mations, etc. Then satel- torical significance. For
in governance, manage- since childhood I have lite technology entered a instance, I was part of the
ment, research and deci- been reading about na- new stage and they began key team organizing and
sion making. As we build tural sciences and geo- to provide us with nume- realizing WMO's wide-
weather and climate resi- graphy and I still prefer rical data and a range of ranging multi-disciplina-
lient societies, we must that kind of environment. parameters that could be ry initiative of ICSU, the
benefit from the critical And yet, I remember that retrieved from remote- International Polar Year
leadership and invol- when I was a young uni- sensing data, so that our 2007-2008; in 2003 we
vement of women. We versity student, my fas- knowledge about the organized the interna-
need them as scientific cination for oceans and state of the atmosphere, tionally highly esteemed
researchers, as key actors marine life could not the oceans and
in disaster risk reduc- translate into an acade- the land increased
tion, climate adaptation mic degree in oceano- tremendously.
and mitigation, as wea- graphy as I was told that These new data,
ther forecasters, as agro- this was a field for men especially over
meteorologists, hydrolo- only. Meteorology and the vast ocean
gists and climatologists hydrology was supposed- areas previous-
-- as agents of change. ly more fitting for a wo- ly not covered
man. Since I was good at with conventio-
But whereas women mathematics, I obtained nal observations,
form an invariable part a Ph.D. in Mathematics contributed to a
of our work in weather and Physics. I then en- considerable im-
and climate, a survey that joyed every day in meteo- provement in the
WMO recently conduc- rology for nearly thirty accuracy of wea-
ted revealed that they years, first in the Russian ther forecasts. My
comprise only one-third Hydro-Meteorological job was to develop
of the global workforce Services where I worked methods and tools
in national meteoro- on numerical models and for the application
logical and hydrological satellite meteorology, and of satellite data in
services, and that only one my last twelve years in the numerical wea-
out of five senior mana- WMO Secretariat, where ther prediction
gers is a woman. Further- I have held the positions and various envi-
more, studies conducted of Director of Research, ronmental appli-
by UNESCO demonstrate Director of Cabinet and cations. All these
that women are under- finally joined the execu- developments
represented in both basic tive team in the position were taking place
scientific research and of Assistant Secretary- when I was a
at the decision-making General. young scientist. I've research programme
levels. UNESCO also talks always had an appetite THORPEX which was
of a "gender bias" where Q: Do you need a lot for new challenges and successfully completed
women and girls are deter- of mathematics for an ambition for finding in 2013; and we launched
red from studying science. weather forecasts and solutions. In the end, I the WMO Bulletin on
remote sensing? have become quite well Greenhouse Gases, which
On a more personal note, known in the atmosphe- is currently widely reco-
I count myself very fortu- Certainly. Meteorology ric science and satellite gnized and appreciated.
nate to have benefited is very firmly based on meteorology communi- Later, in 2009 I organized
from wide educational mathematics and phy- ties, and I also became the high-level segment of
opportunities open to sics. Climate and weather deeply involved in inter- World Climate Confe-
me and, as a woman, I systems are extremely national cooperation. rence-3 with wide repre-
have been able to pur- complex. I worked in sentation from the UN

6 International