Kyung-Ja Ha is a climate physicist from South Korea. She has been a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Pusan National University since 1994 and leads the Global Monsoon Climate Lab (GMCL).[1] Her research interests include climate physics,
monsoon dynamics,
planetary boundary layer modeling,
hydroclimate, and
tropical-extratropical interaction. Prof. Ha's work has been cited about 7,000 times, with an h-index of 44 and an i10-index of 153.[2] She served as president of the Korean Meteorological Society from 2022 to 2023,[3] and has been involved in advisory roles at the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology of South Korea(2022~2023).[4] Currently, she is co-chair of the Expert Team on Climate Impact on Monsoon Weather in the WMO/WWRP Monsoon Panel since 2017,[5] executive editor at Climate Dynamics Journals since 2021,[6] and chair of the Local Advisory Committee of the 2024 Asia Oceania Geosciences Society.[7] Through her research and leadership roles, she has contributed to the understanding of monsoon systems and climate dynamics.
She has been a professor at
Pusan National University in
Republic of Korea since 1994. She has been honored with numerous awards, including the Excellent Scientist Korea Nobel Science Award in 2022[8] and the Unjae Academy Award from the
Korean Meteorological Society in 2019.[9] Her extensive publication record, with over 6,800 citations of her work according to
Google Scholar,[10] further attests to the impact of her research.
1984–1985: Research assistant at Yonsei University
1993: post-doctoral position at MRI/JMA, Japan (supervisor: Tatsushi Tokioka)
1994–present: Prof. of Atmospheric Sciences, Pusan Nat. Univ., Korea
1996: Visiting scholar CSRP at Texas A&M University (work with Prof. Gerald North), USA
1999–2000: Visiting assistant professor at College of Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences (COAS)/OSU (supervisor: Prof. Larry Mahrt), USA
2000–2003: Editor in chief, editorial board of “Atmosphere”, bulletin of Korean Meteorological Society
2002–2004: Director, Women’s studies Center, Pusan National University, Korea
2002–2005: Courtesy prof. of COAS, Oregon State Univ. USA