Dr. KITSIOS completed a PhD with the University of Melbourne and the Université de Poitiers (France) in engineering fluid dynamics (2006-2010). He then undertook post-doctoral research with the CSIRO (2010-2013) and Monash University (2013-2016), on the numerical simulation of atmospheric, oceanic and boundary layer flows. He then held an industrial research position at a hedge fund (2016-2017) developing trading algorithms on the basis of macroeconomic themes and market conditions. Upon re-joining CSIRO in 2017, he undertook research on the development of data driven methods for improved climate simulations and forecasting.
His most recent research involves the use of machine learning to exploit such climate predictions to better quantify the influence of climate variability and change on financial markets and health indicators. He is currently leading cross-disciplinary projects developing machine learning techniques for the rapid assessment of climate risk for a multitude of pathways toward net-zero emissions (www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01011-0), and on forecasting climate-amplified food-security induced conflict. This led to his recent interview by the Nature journal on the role artificial intelligence plays in climate forecasting (www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00780-8).