In 2021, Khurram Riaz who is from Pakistan received a UCAS scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. at ICCES. Khurram Riaz majored in environmental science at the Naval University of Pakistan (Bahira University) during his undergraduate and graduate period. His research mainly focuses on extreme climate events and climate change estimation.

Extreme weather events occur frequently in Pakistan, particularly in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Therefore, the process mechanism and prediction of climate change, meteorological and environmental disasters for CPEC are one of the research objectives of ICCES. Khurram Riaz plans to research the impact of regional drought and its vulnerability in CPEC and the South Asia region, based on the estimated results of the CMIP6 model to reveal the mechanism and predictability of extreme meteorological disasters. It will be of great value to the prevention and mitigation of CPEC and the sustainable development of key areas of the Belt and Road region.

In addition, Prof. Zhaohui Lin co-supervised the graduation thesis of two doctoral students, Laura Ryssaliyeva and Mukhtan Stambekov from the National University of Kazakhstan. Their papers are titled Characteristics of atmospheric droughts and their future projections in Northern Kazakhstan and Dancer weather phenomena in Western Kazakhstan in the context of climate change. Through the thesis research of the above graduate students, the purpose is to clarify the Spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of extreme weather and climate disasters in Central Asia, as well as the process and mechanism of change, to provide the scientific decision-making of disaster prevention and mitigation in the above regions.