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Remote Sensing Specialist Climate and environmental risks (SG1) Managing cryosphere and water risks (SG1-AAA)
Dr. Sher Muhammad joined ICIMOD as a Remote Sensing Specialist (Cryosphere Monitoring Lead) on 1 May 2018. He is the author of over fifty peer-reviewed articles in international journals. He has also reviewed over 250 articles for more than 50 SCI journals and serves as an editor to for several international peer-reviewed journals. Notably, Sher has developed three enhanced snow and glacier data products for High-Mountain Asia.
Besides, he has led several glacier monitoring expeditions to the Karakoram and participated in high-altitude expeditions in Langtang and Mustang in Nepal. In June 2024, Sher initiated and published the first HKH snow update report. He has also successfully secured several projects as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI. Moreover, he developed the cryosphere risks component for the Sustainable Actions for Ecosystems Restoration in Pakistan. Sher is also leading the development of guidelines for regional cryosphere monitoring in the HKH.
Sher has conducted multiple remote-sensing capacity-building trainings and has helped develop ICIMOD’s Strategy 2030 and MTAP 2023–2026 for the Managing Cryosphere and Water Risks Programme. Besides, he is a member of the Joint Body on the Status of Mountain Snow Cover; an international advisory board member of the Consortium on Climate Change, Sustainability and Conservation in Pakistan; and a member of a syndicate on Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan.
He was a postdoctoral researcher at Yunnan University, focusing on cryosphere research in High-Mountain Asia and investigating glacier melting in the HKH region. He was also a Research Assistant with the Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) where he worked on glacier mapping, snow cover, and hazard/disaster monitoring.
Sher has a PhD in physical geography (glaciology) from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Sher Muhammad
How do you protect the pulse of the planet?
I observe the pulse of the planet and estimate the changes in snow, glaciers, and their associated downstream impacts in the HKH region. I communicate the findings in the form of peer review articles and simplify the findings to share it through HKHCryohub and social media for the awareness of the general public. I also protect the pulse of the planet by generating improved data related to snow and glaciers and share it with the broad scientific community through global scientific repositories and our Regional Database System to assist scientists in generating evidence-based solutions.
What is your favorite part of the work you do at ICIMOD?
The diverse staff which helps to broaden my scientific research to use it for the benefit of the people in the HKH region.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about the use of the cutting-edge remote sensing data for cryosphere observations in the HKH which may contribute to science-based policies of the relevant sectors.
My qualifications
I hold a PhD in remote sensing of glaciers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Before joining ICIMOD, my experiences include: work at the National Space Agency of Pakistan (SUPARCO) and Yunnan University, China using remote sensing data applications for various earth resources, particularly glaciers (changes and inventory), snow variation, crops, and associated natural disasters for more than ten years; being part of the Pakistan flood monitoring team in SUPARCO engaged in daily mapping, damage assessment, and sharing flood updates with the national and local disaster management institutes; work with the crop monitoring/ forecast team on satellite data processing and analysis in SUPARCO; contributions to the National Environmental Information Management System (NEIMS) project; and contributions to generating the inventory of extreme events and snow variations in the Indus Basin. I have published several peer-reviewed articles in top journals (e.g., Remote Sensing of Environment, Earth System Science Data, Journal of Glaciology, and Journal of Hydrology).
