About me

Dr Sonny Truong is a research scientist at CSIRO, working in the High-Resolution Climate Modelling group. His research focuses on the development of regional climate models, particularly the Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM), and the application of AI for climate downscaling.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam (2013). He then completed his Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Engineering at UNIST, South Korea (2016), working with Prof. Myong-In Lee on the impacts of large-scale transport and biomass burning on Southeast Asian haze. This work strengthened his skills in meteorological modelling and sparked his long-term interest in cloud and precipitation processes and regional climate modelling.

He pursued his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science at Monash University (2022) under the supervision of Prof. Steven Siems, Dr Yi Huang, and Emeritus Prof. Michael Manton, focusing on clouds, thermodynamics, and precipitation over the Southern Ocean. His research combined high-resolution modelling with data from international field campaigns (CAPRICORN, MARCUS, MICRE, SOCRATES), leading to publications in journals such as JGR–Atmospheres and BAMS. In 2023, he was recognized as a Global Talent through Australia’s Global Talent Independent Program (GTI), with endorsement from Dr Marcus Thatcher.

Since joining CSIRO, Dr Truong has contributed to advancing CCAM to more accurately simulate tropical cyclones, cloud and precipitation processes, and regional climate projections. In addition to physics-based modelling, he is exploring how emerging AI techniques, such as conditional GANs, can complement traditional models to improve regional downscaling, reduce computational costs, and enhance prediction of extreme events. Looking ahead, his goal is to integrate physical climate models with AI approaches to create next-generation climate tools that better serve policymakers, industry, and communities in responding to the challenges of a changing climate.