Dr Ioana Colfescu

Principal Research Fellow in Climate and Machine Learning

Email
ic98@st-andrews.ac.uk

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Research areas

Areas of expertise: Large scale (ENSO, AMO) Climate Dynamics and Variability,ML for climate prediction,Extreme Events, Mountain Meteorology, Exploratory Data Analysis.

In my joint role at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, I lead the newly established research group, . The mission of the group is to leverage physics-informed machine learning to advance the understanding of climate systems, their connections to weather patterns, and the dynamics of climate change from fundamental science to impacts.

In NCAS I am currently the the Digital Atmosphere Programme Leader and in this role I lead the research strategy for the NCASÌý newest programme linked to digital technology. Previously to joining ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø I worked for the University of Leeds, the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh. My background is in mathematics after which I pursued a Climate Dynamics Ph.D. (George Mason University in the US). I have extensive international experience and throughout my career, I worked for and, collaborated with various organizations such as the University of Leeds, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, University of Trento (Italy), the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (USA), George Mason University (USA), the University of Barcelona (Spain) or the National Meteorological Administration (Romania).

Some of my previous research experience covers working on topics such as, ML for ENSO prediction, understanding the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV), understanding the role of anthropogenic aerosols, extreme events attribution and detection, mountain waves modeling, modeling air pollution and pollutants as well as a few other smaller projects for the industry.
While the core of my work entails research I also love being part of field campaigns (I’ve been in the Arctic Ocean, Iceland, Italy, UK and I am a Certified Mission Scientist for Airborne Research facilities) and I occasionally worked in NCAS on industry-related projects, as well as the development of training resources. On the teaching side, I have previously led and taught specialised Atmospheric Science related course and I also very much enjoy mentoring and supervising post-graduate students. I see working with post-graduate colleagues as an excellent opportunity for a two ways learning process.
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I very much enjoy teamwork and diversity while the fact that I’ve been moving a lot around made it difficult to build a single stream of research, until ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, I have learned to make the best out of meeting new people and both regarding colleagues as well as students.
In my free time, I love camping, spending time with my dog Pip, and taking photos ().

PhD supervision

  • ThomasÌýBreitburd
  • MaxwellÌýJackson

Selected publications

  • Open access
    Schneider, E. K., Colfescu, I., Chen, H. & Carey-Prieto, E., 1 Apr 2026, In: Climate Dynamics. 64, 4, 16 p., 154.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Dong, B., Aksenov, Y., Colfescu, I., Harvey, B., Hirschi, J., Josey, S., Lu, H., Mecking, J., Oltmanns, M., Osprey, S., Robson, J., Rynders, S., Shaffrey, L., Sinha, B., Sutton, R. & Weisheimer, A., 5 Feb 2025, In: Climate Dynamics. 63, 2, 38 p., 113.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Colfescu, I., Christensen, H. & Gagne, D. J., 16 Jul 2024, In: Geophysical Research Letters. 51, 13, 9 p., e2023GL105194.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

  • Open access
    Rivosecchi, A., Bollasina, M. A. & Colfescu, I., 1 Jul 2024, In: Atmospheric Research. 304, 12 p., 107391.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Shaw, J. T., Foulds, A., Wilde, S., Barker, P., Squires, F. A., Lee, J., Purvis, R., Burton, R., Colfescu, I., Mobbs, S., Cliff, S., Bauguitte, S.J.-B., Young, S., Schwietzke, S. & Allen, G., 26 Jan 2023, In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 23, 2, p. 1491-1509 19 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Bollasina, M. & Colfescu, I., 16 Oct 2023, In: Weather. 78, 10, p. 280-281 2 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

  • Rotach, M. W., Serafin, S., Ward, H. C., Arpagaus, M., Colfescu, I., Cuxart, J., De Wekker, S. F. J., GrubiÅ¡ic, V., Kalthoff, N., Karl, T., Kirshbaum, D. J., Lehner, M., Mobbs, S., Paci, A., Palazzi, E., Bailey, A., Schmidli, J., Wittmann, C., Wohlfahrt, G. & Zardi, D., 1 May 2022, In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 103, 5, p. E1282-E1295

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Wilde, S. E., Dominutti, P. A., Allen, G., Andrews, S. J., Bateson, P., Bauguitte, S. J. B., Burton, R. R., Colfescu, I., France, J., Hopkins, J. R., Huang, L., Jones, A. E., Lachlan-Cope, T., Lee, J. D., Lewis, A. C., Mobbs, S. D., Weiss, A., Young, S. & Purvis, R. M., 12 Mar 2021, In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 21, 5, p. 3741-3762 22 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    COLFESCU, I., KLEMP, J. B., BOLLASINA, M. A., MOBBS, S. D. & BURTON, R. R., 1 May 2021, In: Monthly Weather Review. 149, 5, p. 1559-1575 17 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Colfescu, I. & Schneider, E. K., 15 May 2020, In: Journal of Climate. 33, 10, p. 4229-4254 26 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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