Nikolay Khabarov
Senior Research Scholar
Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group
Advancing Systems Analysis Program
Biography
Nikolay Khabarov joined IIASA as a research scholar in January 2007, to strengthen the team in charge of quantifying the benefits of improved Earth observations. Since then, Dr. Khabarov has been a principal investigator and contributor to a range of IIASA research projects with a particular focus on crop growth modeling, natural disasters (e.g. forest fires), assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation options, economics of adaptation, estimation of the value of information including environmental aspects, risk-optimal portfolios (e.g. technological portfolios for power generation), modeling carbon risk reduction through innovative financial tools, asset-level economic modeling and optimal land allocation for agricultural production.Dr. Khabarov’s expertise is in mathematical modeling, programming, and optimization under uncertainty. With his technical skills, Dr. Khabarov is contributing to improving the methods, tools, and technologies used by IIASA for biophysical and economic modeling at regional and global scales.
In the course of his professional activities prior to joining IIASA, Dr. Khabarov gained extensive business experience while working for private companies covering a range of industries including news and media, financial services and investment banking, legal services, marketing and trading, and information technologies.
Dr. Khabarov studied applied mathematics at the Moscow State University, Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, and received his Master of Science degree in 1998 and his PhD in mathematics in 2004. In his PhD thesis, Dr. Khabarov developed new efficient methods providing global fast convergence to a solution of an optimal control problem.
Dr. Khabarov has been involved in over 20 international research projects including Global Earth Observation - Benefit Estimation: Now, Next and Emerging, (GEO-BENE), Methodology for Effective Decision-making on Impacts and Adaptation (MEDIATION), the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement project (AgMIP/GGCMI), and the Economics of Climate Change Adaptation project (econadapt.eu).
Dr. Khabarov is an author of more than 100 scientific publications including book chapters and reports.
Last update: 16 FEB 2021
Publications
Zantout, K., Balkovič, J. , Billing, M., Folberth, C. , Gosling, S.N., Hank, T., Hantson, S., Iizumi, T., Ito, A., Jägermeyr, J., Jain, A.K., Khabarov, N. , Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Li, F., Li, M., Lin, T.-S., Liu, W., Müller, C., Okada, M., Ostberg, S., Otta, K., Rabin, S., Reyer, C.P.O., Scheer, C., Schneider, J.M., Zabel, F., Frieler, K., & Schewe, J. (2025). Shifting dominant periods in extreme climate impacts under global warming. Nature Communications 16 (1) e9746. 10.1038/s41467-025-65600-7.
Oberleitner, T., Baklanov, A. , Ferreira, T.B., Hoogenboom, G., Jägermeyr, J., Jain, A., Lin, T.-S., Mialyk, O., Müller, C., Ruane, A.C., Zabel, F., Balkovič, J. , Wang, C., Faye, B., Guarin, J.R., Iizumi, T., Khabarov, N. , Liu, W., Okada, M., Rabin, S.S., Scheer, C., Skalský, R. , & Folberth, C. (2025). Explaining climatic drivers of yield anomalies in global crop models through metamodel-based attribution. ESS Open Archive 10.22541/essoar.176071967.73925210/v1. (Submitted)
Huang, W., Ye, H., Khabarov, N. , Chen, J., & Yu, Y.Y. (2025). Decoupling carbon emissions, economic growth, and health costs toward carbon neutrality in China's regions. Energy for Sustainable Development 88 e101789. 10.1016/j.esd.2025.101789.
Folberth, C. , Baklanov, A. , Khabarov, N. , Oberleitner, T. , Balkovič, J. , & Skalský, R. (2025). CROMES v1.0: a flexible CROp Model Emulator Suite for climate impact assessment. Geoscientific Model Development 18 (17) 5759-5779. 10.5194/gmd-18-5759-2025.