Previously, Zebiak was director-general of the IRI, leading an inter-disciplinary team of more than 40 scientists specializing in climate prediction, agriculture, health, water, economics and development policy. Zebiak has worked in the area of ocean-atmosphere interaction and climate variability since completing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. He and Mark Cane authored the first dynamical model used to predict El Niño successfully. He has published extensively in journals such as Science, Nature, and the International Journal of Climatology, and has served as an advisor to a range of US and international climate science research programs. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Research Interests Climate dynamics, prediction, climate risk management, climate services.