Pedram is a fluid dynamicist interested in climate dynamics and in particular the effect of climate change on extreme weather events.

Pedram received a BSc from the University of Tehran in 2005 and an MSc from the University of Waterloo in 2007, where he majored in thermo-fluid sciences. He then moved to UC Berkeley in 2008 and graduated with an MA in mathematics and a PhD in mechanical engineering in 2013. In his PhD research, numerical simulations and mathematical models were used to explore geophysical and astrophysical vortices, such as the Jupiter's Great Red Spot and Atlantic Meddies, in order to improve our understanding of their dynamics and their roles in the oceans and atmospheres. During his PhD, Pedram received a NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship from Canada, and the Jonathan Laitone Memorial Scholarship and Outstanding Preliminary Examination Award from UC Berkeley. In the summer of 2012, he was a Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where he worked on optimal transport and convection in porous media.

As an environmental fellow, Pedram worked with Brian Farrell of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to study the jet streams and the atmospheric blocking events in a warming climate. The improved understanding of the blocks are now used to investigate changes in some types of weather extremes, such as heat wave, cold spell, and heavy precipitation, in a warming climate.

Faculty Host

Brian F. Farrell, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences