Bhubaneswar: Director General of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mrutyunjay Mohapatra was elected Thursday as one of three Vice-Presidents of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), informed the WMO in a tweet.
Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director of @Indiametdept has been elected Third Vice-President of WMO at #MeteoWorld.
We congratulate all the new office holders. pic.twitter.com/XqHVuOrJN8— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) June 1, 2023
Apart from Mohapatra, the two others who were appointed Vice-Presidents are Eoin Moran, Director of Met Éireann in Ireland, and Daouda Konate, Director of Meteorology of Cote d’Ivoire.
Mohapatra, who hails from Odisha, is regarded as India’s cyclone man. He is currently working as the Director General of Meteorology at IMD in New Delhi.
Mohapatra was born August 12, 1965 in Rajagurupur of Odisha’s Bhadrak district. In 1988, Mohapatra began his career as a Junior Scientific Assistant at the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Chandipur, Odisha, after acquiring MSc (Physics) and PhD (Physics) degrees. From 1990 to 1992, he also worked as a Physics lecturer at DK College in Balasore district.
In 1992, Mohapatra began his career with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Pune as a Meteorologist Gr. II Trainee and later rose through the ranks to become Director of the Regional Meteorological Centre, IMD Guwahati in 2004. Later in 2019, he was appointed Director General of Meteorology at IMD in New Delhi.
Notably, the World Meteorological Organisation is a UN organisation responsible for monitoring climate change, early warnings, and disaster preparedness.
PNN