Sumant is a climate dynamicist who uses observational analysis, theoretical diagnosis, and dynamical modeling to provide insights into the structure and mechanisms of climate teleconnections, ocean-atmosphere interaction, droughts and deserts, global warming, and monsoon variability. A current focus is unraveling the natural variability and secular change components of the climate record to advance understanding of the steep warming of the Northern Continents, loss of Arctic sea ice, and warming of West Antarctica. Investigating AMO’s evolution and hydroclimate impacts is an ongoing activity. Sumant’s lab issues, each spring, seasonal forecasts of ENSO and the South Asian summer monsoon, with the latter informing India’s official forecast.   

Sumant teaches the graduate core courses on dynamics and climate; he has advised 18 Ph.Ds. and a dozen M.S. students. Sumant chaired the Climate Variations and Change Committee of the American Meteorological Society and led the drafting of its 2019 Information Statement on Climate Change. Sumant has served on the Climate Research Committee and the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the US National Academies. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Royal Meteorological Society; a 2016-17 Jefferson Science Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences; and a 2020 Fulbright-Nehru Fellow.