On January 27, the OIST Foundation hosted the webinar Observe the Weather Day, featuring a conversation between Professor Pinaki Chakraborty, Interim Dean of Faculty Affairs and head of OIST’s Fluid Mechanics Unit, and OIST Foundation Executive Director Ginger Choy. Observe the Weather Day is an American holiday that celebrates both amateur and professional researchers who study climate and weather phenomena, making it a fitting moment to spotlight OIST’s work in this area.
The discussion centered on Professor Chakraborty’s research into the behavior of hurricanes at landfall. When he arrived in Okinawa in 2012, he experienced a typhoon for the first time in his life, an encounter that sparked a fundamental scientific question: why do powerful storms intensify over warm oceans yet often weaken in unexpected ways once they reach land? As he explored the existing literature, Chakraborty uncovered a surprising gap in research on hurricane landfall dynamics, motivating him to pursue a line of inquiry that crossed traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Professor Chakraborty’s work exemplifies OIST’s distinctive research environment. Trained as a physicist, he brings tools from fluid dynamics, theory, experiments, and simulations to problems traditionally studied within meteorology. OIST’s interdisciplinary structure, flexible funding, and encouragement of curiosity-driven research allow scientists like Chakraborty to ask bold questions beyond conventional academic silos. This freedom has enabled his team to generate new insights into extreme weather systems that have implications for climate science, risk assessment, and resilience planning worldwide.
The webinar also marked the launch of OIST Science in Focus, a new quarterly webinar series produced by the OIST Foundation. We invite you to join us for upcoming Science in Focus webinars in April, June, and October as we continue to spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of science at OIST.