Ashok Karumuri holds a PhD (1997)  in Meteorology. He earlier worked in JAMSTEC (Japan), APCC (Korea), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, and University of Hyderabad (India).  Ashok is a globally-acknowledged researcher in tropical Indo-Pacific studies, including the discovery of the ENSO-Modoki phenomenon, basin wide warming of the pacific, global  impacts of ENSO Modoki, & Indian Ocean Dipole phenomena, etc.  Ashok had successfully led the development of the first version of the  Indian earth-system model by transforming a seasonal forecast model to a long-term climate model. He also carries out past and future climate modelling research. Ashok  also worked on climate-prediction - including multi-model seasonal to decadal forecasts,  applications such as crop-yield forecasting, extreme urban weather, etc. Ashok had also contributed to international climate change policy/science deliberations of UNFCCC and IPCC during 2010-2014.​

Till recently a professor at the University of Hyderabad (India), Ashok recently joined the Climate Change Research Centre at KAUST as a Principal Research Scientist. He coordinates the efforts on generating high resolution climate change projections for the Arabian Peninsula region, and also collaborates on the activities in seasonal prediction and its applications, etc.​