Dr. Arain is the Director of the McMaster Centre for Climate Change and a professor in the School of Geography and Earth Sciences at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was the president of the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) - Biogeosciences Section from 2009-2012. Dr. Arain’s research interests focus on bio- and hydro-meteorology, hydrology, climatology, air pollution, land surface-atmosphere interactions and climate modeling. He has expertise in both micrometeorological measurements and land-surface atmosphere interaction modeling. Dr. Arain’s Turkey Point flux tower sites, where water, carbon and energy exchanges are being continuously observed since 2003 in an age-sequence (75, 40 and 12 year old) of pine forests as well as in a deciduous (80-year old) forest in southern Ontario are part of global Fluxnet and Ameriflux programs. Dr. Arain has developed the carbon and nitrogen coupled Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CN-CLASS) and nitrogen modules for the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM-N+). CN-CLASS model development work was part of a multi-university collaborative modeling initiative known as the Canadian Global Coupled Carbon Climate Model, (CGC3M)) to develop a global coupled carbon climate model. Dr. Arain has also been involved in interdisciplinary research initiatives to investigate the effects of air pollution on human health using observed datasets and land use regression models for health studies in several urban areas in Canada.
In the FloodNet project, Dr. Arain will focus on the analysis and applicability of observed and simulated future extreme events in regional and local context as part of Theme 1, “Flood Regime in Canada: Learning from the Past and Preparing for the Future”.
Dr. Arain has published more than 95 refereed journal papers.