Haider Taha (PhD 1990, University of California at Berkeley), President and Scientist at Altostratus Inc., has over 20 years of experience in atmospheric modeling and research. He has been actively engaged in meteorological and photochemical/air quality modeling since starting his graduate studies at Berkeley in 1984. That year, he also joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) as a graduate student research assistant in the then Applied Science Division. His masters and doctoral theses at UC Berkeley developed methodologies and incorporated early efforts in "urbanizing" mesoscale meteorological models, improving boundary-layer parameterizations and urban canopy-layer representations, thus improving the location specificity of meteorological simulations and, thus, the accuracy of dependent photochemical, energy demand, and thermal environmental modeling and analysis. In 2003, Dr. Taha resigned from the Berkeley Lab to start Altostratus Inc. and since 2004 has been appointed Adjunct Professor  in the Department of Meteorology at San Jose State University. From 2008 through 2010, he also was Adjunct Professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University.

As a post-doctoral fellow (1990-1992) and then a Staff Scientist (1992-2003) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Dr. Taha was lead meteorological and photochemical modeler for studies and projects on meso-meteorology, urban climates, heat islands, and air quality. Beginning in 1997, he became Principal Investigator. Projects he worked on were funded by the US Department of Energy (US DOE), US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), California Energy Commission (CEC), Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF, Canada), Southern California Edison (SCE), California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE), and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). In 1997, he was awarded a Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to further expand his work and international collaborative efforts.

At Altostratus Inc., Dr. Taha is Principal Investigator on atmospheric and environmental modeling projects for national, state, and local agencies (see current projects page or the "Research Highlights" page). He develops, adapts, and uses state-of-science atmospheric models, including new-generation fine-resolution models, to study multi-faceted urban environmental aspects, e.g., urban meteorology, heat islands, emissions, air quality, and energy demand. His pioneering work in meteorological and photochemical modeling of urban heat islands and their mitigation led to the initial consideration of such concepts and strategies as "cool communities" and "high-albedo urban areas" by regulatory agencies including the US EPA and Air Quality Management Districts in several states.

Dr. Taha has published on the topics of heat islands, urban climates, meteorology, and regional/mesoscale meteorological-photochemical modeling (see partial list of publications for example), has served as an adviser / reviewer for a number of national and international scientific peer-reviewed publications and technical proposals, a guest editor, and an invited contributor to book chapters and encyclopedia sections. He is a full member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC), the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), and regional, regulatory modeling working groups. He has chaired conference and meeting sessions related to urban environment, heat islands, and air quality. While at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he also was a technical supervisor for scholars and visiting scientists with the HIG and a thesis committee member for graduate students at San Jose State University and the University of California (Berkeley and Los Angeles).

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