[7][8][9] Malhi was educated at Southend High School for Boys[4] and Queens' College, Cambridge where he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in natural sciences (specialising in physics) in 1990.

[4][2] He completed postgraduate study at the University of Reading where he was awarded a PhD in meteorology in 1993 for research on the earth's energy budget and heat fluxes supervised by Alan Ibbetson and George Dugdale.

This work integrates insights from ecosystem ecology into earth system science, and has been characterised by an interdisciplinary approach that involves establishing broad networks of field research in tropical forests in some of the most remote and challenging regions of the world.

In the context of the UK he has particular interests in ecosystems restoration, and also conducts extensive ecological research at Wytham Woods[11] the Amazon rainforest[12][13][14] and the Andes.

[5] His work also makes use of microscale meteorology, global climate datasets, terrestrial ecosystem models and satellite remote sensing.