Atta Ullah — Data Scientist & Climate Researcher

About

I am the Lead of the Climate Data and Modelling Team at Weather and Climate Services (Pvt.) Ltd., Islamabad, Pakistan. I hold an MPhil in Computer Science from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, with research interests at the intersection of machine learning, data science, complex systems, and climate science. My research focuses on climate extremes and their impacts, including extreme-event detection and attribution, compound climate extremes, floods, heatwaves, humid-heat stress, climate-risk assessment, and climate modelling. I also work on climate-data analysis, bias correction and statistical downscaling, climate emulation, and uncertainty quantification, with a particular interest in applying machine-learning methods to complex climate and environmental systems. My research has contributed to peer-reviewed publications, scientific reports, and decision-support tools, including work published in Nature Climate Change, Frontiers in Climate, and CEUR Workshop Proceedings, as well as contributions to MediaEval and the World Weather Attribution initiative.

Research Interests

Climate Attribution Humid Heat Stress Extreme Events Extreme Events Attribution Risk Assessment Floods Heatwaves Compound Extremes Graph Theory / Network Science Graph Neural Networks Transformers Time-Series Forecasting Complex Systems Machine Learning Computer Vision

Publications

Dhakal M, Ullah A, Pandey S, Khanal SN, Kafle KR, Yadav A and Saeed F. Climate-induced Loss and Damage in Nepal: Attribution Analysis and Institutional Readiness for International Support. Frontiers in Climate, 8:1782991, 2026. doi:10.3389/fclim.2026.1782991

Mariam Zachariah, Fahad Saeed, Ben Clarke, Joyce Kimutai, Sumayya Ijaz, Khadija Irfan, Atta Ullah, Anwar Sadad, Israr Ahmad, Irfan Ur Rashid, Roop Singh, Maja Vahlberg, Cornelia Scholz, Nick Julien Baumgart, Emmanuel Raju, and Friederike Otto. Climate Change Intensified Heavy Monsoon Rain In Pakistan, Exacerbating Urban Floods That Impacted Highly Exposed Communities. World Weather Attribution, 2025. doi:10.25560/122679

Tom Matthews, Emma E. Ramsay, Fahad Saeed, Steven Sherwood, Ollie Jay, Colin Raymond, Nerilie Abram, Jason Kai Wei Lee, Shanta Barley, Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick, Mariam Saleh Khan, Katrin J. Meissner, Callum Roberts, Dileep Mavalankar, Kenneth G. C. Smith, Atta Ullah, Anwar Sadad, Victoria Turner & Andrew Forrest. Humid Heat Exceeds Human Tolerance Limits and Causes Mass Mortality. Nature Climate Change, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02215-8

Atta Ullah, Rabeeh Ayaz Abbasi, Akmal Saeed Khattak and Anwar Said. Identifying Misinformation Spreaders: A Graph-Based Semi-Supervised Learning Approach. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.03704 (Workshop), 2023. arXiv:2303.03704

Abstracts

Saeed F, Ullah A, Sadad A, Saleh Khan M, and Guerra M. From Lethal Heat to Invisible Deaths: Physiological Impact Attribution of Extreme Humid Heat in Karachi, Pakistan. EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria. doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu26-19826

Ullah A, Sadad A, Saleh Khan M, and Saeed F. When Faith Meets Heat: Climate Change Risks During the Hajj Pilgrimage. EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria. doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21325

Ijaz S, Ullah A, Ahmad R, Khan M S, and Saeed F. Historical Evidence of Compound Heatwave and Extreme Precipitation in Pakistan, 1980–2024. EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria. doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21490

Under Review & Ongoing Studies

Fahad Saeed, Atta Ullah, Mariam Saleh Khan, Anwar Sadad. Attribution of 2022 Extreme Flooding in Sindh Pakistan. Climate Detection and Attribution, 2024.

Fahad Saeed, Mariam Saleh Khan, Anwar Sadad, Atta Ullah. Assessment of 2024 Humid Heat Stress in Karachi Incorporating Human Physiological Survivability Limits. 2025.

Experience

Dec 2023 – Present

Research Associate & Data Scientist

Weather and Climate Services (Pvt.) Ltd., Islamabad

Lead of Climate Data and Modelling Team; handling large-scale climate models, gridded observations, and meteorological station data
Study extreme events including floods, heatwaves, compound extremes, and humid heat stress by assessing physiological limitations
Work in attribution science to draw relationships between extreme events and changing climate
Employ GNNs for complex risk modeling and cascade events
Lead teams for dashboard development for monitoring and forecasting humid heat in Pakistan

Oct 2025 – Dec 2025

Research Engineer | Applied AI Engineering

DeepGraphAI, Islamabad

Developed graph-based ML models for large-scale scientific datasets
Knowledge graph construction, entity linking, and relationship extraction
Implemented GNNs for representation learning on complex relational data
Applied embedding techniques and vector-based retrieval for semantic search

Jan 2022 – Sep 2023

Research Assistant

Social Computing Lab, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Conspiracy source detection in social networks using graph machine learning
Research in GNNs, graph attention, and modeling complex systems

May 2021 – Sep 2023

Backend Developer

Baitech, Qatar

Built and optimized RESTful APIs using Node.js and Express.js
Database management with MySQL; focused on performance and scalability

Sep 2021 – Jan 2022

MERN Stack Developer

OpenBittz Digital Agency, UAE

Full-stack development using MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js

Jan 2017 – Aug 2021

Intern | Full Stack Developer

MaxTech Developers, KPK, Pakistan

Web and mobile application development; front-end and back-end

Education

Sep 2021 – Nov 2023

M.Phil. Computer Science

Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Advisors: Dr. Rabeeh Ayaz Abbasi & Dr. Anwar Said
Dissertation: Identifying Misinformation Spreaders on Twitter using Ego-Centric Network Embeddings
Major: Social Network Analysis, Graph Machine Learning, GNNs
Minor: AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision

Sep 2017 – Sep 2021

B.S. Computer Science

University of Swat, KPK, Pakistan

Advisor: Mr. Muhammad Habib
Dissertation: Learning Management System and Parental Control System
Major: Problem Solving, Data Structures & Algorithms, Agile Development

Technical Skills

Languages & Libraries

Python, R, JavaScript, PHP, Java, C++, SQL, Bash · PyTorch, TensorFlow, MATLAB, OpenCV, NumPy, Pandas, GeoPandas, NetworkX, Owlready2

Climate & Spatial Tools

CDO, xarray, NetCDF · ERA5, CPC, IMERG, MERRA-2, CRU, CHIRPS, CHIRTS · CMIP6, CORDEX, ISIMIP, DAMIP, GCMs, RCMs

Machine Learning & AI

Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Graph Neural Networks, Explainable AI, Data-Centric AI, Computer Vision, Anomaly Detection, Graph Theory, Network Analysis, Extreme Value Theory, Statistical Downscaling

Visualization & Dashboards

Power BI, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Plotly, MATLAB

Web Development & Systems

Django, Flask, Laravel, CodeIgniter, React.js, Node.js, Express.js, MySQL, MongoDB, Ubuntu

Tools & Projects

World Weather Attribution Methodology

Developed the WWA methodology for extreme event attribution in Python — enabling rapid climate attribution studies for floods, heatwaves, and compound events.

PythonClimate ScienceAttribution

Humid Heat Stress Dashboard

Forecasting dashboard for metabolic equivalent task (MET) during extreme hot conditions, supporting real-time monitoring of humid heat across Pakistan.

DashboardForecastingHealth

Heat–Productivity Tradeoff Dashboard

Presenting the tradeoff between extreme humid heat conditions and productivity of skilled labor in Pakistan, with planned extension to global scale.

AnalyticsPolicyLabor

Rental Property Finder App

Full-featured application for finding and listing rental properties with search, filter, and geolocation capabilities.

ReactNode.jsMobile

Learning Management System

Comprehensive LMS with course management, student tracking, and integrated parental control for educational institutions.

Full StackEducation

CHD Ontology

Coronary Heart Disease ontology using Owlready2 for structured biomedical knowledge representation and reasoning.

OntologyOwlready2

Awards & Honors

▸ Hackathon Champion — Winner of 8th Episode of ExcITeCup 2023, CUST. Awarded highest prize money.

▸ Prime Minister's Youth Laptop Program — Higher Education Commission, Pakistan.

▸ Graduate Research Fellowship — Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

▸ Fellowship — Govt Jahanzeb College, Saidu Sharif Swat.