Wenju Cai is a prominent world authority and leader on climate variability, ocean dynamics, ocean-atmosphere interactions, and climate change. He has pioneered the first successful nonlinear dynamical framework and model of extreme climate phenomena in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans under greenhouse warming. Cai has elucidated the dynamics of ocean circulation, ocean-atmosphere variability, and their response to greenhouse warming. He has unravelled the links between climate change forcing factors and changes in the global ocean circulation, extreme climate and extreme weather including Australian drought and bushfires. His work had led to significant improvements in fundamental knowledge, climate simulations and climate projections.