Professional Affiliation

Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization

Expert Bio

Professor Taalas was elected in May 2015 as the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for a mandate running from 2016 to 2019 and re-elected for a second term in June 2019. Before joining WMO he was the Director-General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute 2002-2005, 2007-2015 (National weather, Climate and marine Institute). He has also held positions in International development and scientific fields:

• Director of Development and Regional Activities Department of WMO, Geneva 2005-2007
• Research professor on Remote Sensing/FMI 2000-2002
• Senior scientist/scientist at the FMI 1986-1999

He holds a PhD in Meteorology from Helsinki University.