Hi @dkhutch and @eunpalim,
Thanks for the reminder David.
As for invited speakers, we could go with someone from NCAR potentially highlighting feedbacks between the development of coupled and individual models. Chatting with Julie Arblaster, along with John Fasullo, she suggested:
Isla Simpson - dynamicist, led the decision on the configuration of the next version of CAM in terms of vertical levels, contributes a lot to model evaluation. Also a co-lead on the Strategic Ensemble Design task team for CMIP7
Rich Neale - ENSO / MJO / convection, leads the Atmosphere Modelling and Predictability group at NCAR and led the atmospheric model working group of CESM for many years. Is a great presenter.
Brian Medeiros - clouds, doing interesting work with a regional refined version, though mainly AGCM
or more locally, we could go with someone like Yann Planton, a new postdoc here at Monash, who has done a lot of work on coupled model assessment. His past work has a focus on ENSO, but he is working on a paper looking at how model internal variability can influence model evaluation which might be of relevance.
Regards, Shayne