Born:

28 February 1956 in Milan, Italy

Academic degrees:

• Degree in Physics (Laurea, 110/110 e lode), 1981, University of Milan.
  Thesis: "Study of the relationship between precipitation and upper-air atmospheric fields by multivariate statistical analysis" (in Italian).

• Ph.D. in Dynamical Meteorology, 1994, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London
  Thesis: "Towards a dynamical understanding of planetary-scale flow regimes"

Current position:

Head of the Physics of Weather and Climate Group at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy

Previous employment history:

• September 1982 - December 1983: Meteorological consultant for the Thermal and Nuclear Research Centre of the Italian Electricity Board in Milan, Italy.

• January - December 1984: Visiting scientist in the Numerical Experimentation Section of ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), Reading, U.K.

• January - December 1985: Research scientist in the Cosmo-Geophysics Institute of the National Research Council, Turin, Italy.

• January 1986 - April 1987: Scientific analyst, with reponsibility for environmental modeling, in CILEA (Inter-University Consortium of Lombardy for Automatic Computing), Milan, Italy.

• May 1987 - December 1994: Scientist / Senior Scientist (from May 1991) in the Predictability and Diagnostic Research Section of ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), Reading, U.K.

• January 1995 - March 1999: Senior scientific analyst, with reponsibility for climate and environmental modeling activities, in the High-Performance Computing Section of CINECA (Inter-University Consortium for Electronic Computing of North-Eastern Italy), Bologna, Italy.

Main research interests and activities:

• Dynamical and statistical analysis of planetary flow regimes.

• Atmospheric predictability studies and development/validation of ensemble prediction systems for medium- and extended-range forecasts.

• Numerical experimentation on seasonal predictability and tropical-extratropical interactions.

• Development of simplified models of the atmospheric general circulation.

Participation in European research programmes:

• 1996-1999: MILLENNIA (Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Climate Variability on Decadal and Centennial Timescales), coordinated by Prof. H. von Storch (Max-Planck Institut, Germany)

• 1996-1999: PROVOST (Prediction of Climate Variations on Seasonal and Interannual Time-scales), coordinated by Dr. T.N. Palmer (ECMWF)

• 1998-2000: POTENTIALS (Project on Tendency Evaluations using New Techniques to Improve Atmospheric Long-term Simulations), coordinated by Dr. E. Kaas (Danish Meteorological Institute)

• 1998-2000: SINTEX (Interannual and Decadal Climate Variability: Scale Interaction Experiments), coordinated by Dr. A. Navarra (ISAO-CNR and INGV, Italy)

• 1998-2000: STOEC (Storm-Track Upper-Ocean Interactions and the Impact on European Climate), coordinated by Prof. B. Hoskins (University of Reading, U.K.)

• 2000-2003: PROMISE (Predictability and Variability of Monsoons, and the Agricultural and Hydrological Impacts of Climate Change), coordinated by Prof. J. Slingo (University of Reading, U.K.)

Academic teaching contracts:

• Academic year 1986/87: Lecturer of a module on "Modelling of the atmospheric general circulation" for the degree in Physics of the University of Turin, Italy.

• Academic years 1994/95 and 1995/96: Lecturer of the "Climatology and Meteorology" course for the degree in Environmental Sciences of the University of Parma, Italy.

• Academic year 1996/97: Lecturer of the "Climatology and Meteorology" course for the degree in Environmental Sciences of the University of Bologna, Italy.

Membership of scientific societies and committees:

Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (U.K.) since 1985.

Member of the Scientific Steering Group of the CLIVAR-WCRP programme.

Awards:

In 2002, F. Molteni was awarded the Buchan Prize of the Royal Meteorological Society, jointly with R. Buizza, for "important original contributions to meteorology" in the area of ensemble forecasting, published in the Society's scientific journals.

List of Publications