Researcher

My Expertise

Climate change; climate; carbon; vegetation-climate interactions; extreme weather.

Fields of Research (FoR)

Climate Change Processes

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Biography

I am a climate scientist based in the Climate Change Research Centre. My interests are very broad. I mostly work on land surface processes and how these can be represented in global and regional climate models. This includes work on limits to how well climate models represent key land processes and the implications of these limits to the reliability of projections of carbon and water in the Earth System. I'm also interested in the robustness...view more

I am a climate scientist based in the Climate Change Research Centre. My interests are very broad. I mostly work on land surface processes and how these can be represented in global and regional climate models. This includes work on limits to how well climate models represent key land processes and the implications of these limits to the reliability of projections of carbon and water in the Earth System. I'm also interested in the robustness of global and regional model projections in general, and the appropriate use of these models at various scales. 

I've recently begun to work with risk assessment processes - these use regional and global projections of future climate. I've collaborated with a range of people to try to inform business to prevent the misuse of climate projections. This includes the need to operationalise climate projections and build services that emply knowledge brokers to link business need with the information content available from models. 

I was the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes which ended in Decembter 2025. This enabled me to collaborate with a large number of superb researchers. I am a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and currently Chair of the National Commitee for Earth System Science. The National Committee has been active in developing a strategic plan for our discipline. I am also on the Advisory Board of the Australian Community and Earth System Simulator National Research Infrastuture (ACCESS NRI), the science advisory board of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and the Advisroy Board of the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Climate Systems Hub. 

I am a Commissioner on the New South Wales Net Zero Commission. I am also a non-executive director of Risk Frontiers, an insurance funded business focussed on risk. 

 

 


My Qualifications

Undergraduate 1982-85 Liverpool University B.Sc. (Hons) Physical Geography

Postgraduate 1985-88 Liverpool University Ph.D The Development and implementation of a new land surface scheme for use in general circulation models.

Postgraduate 2000-01 Macquarie University Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Leadership (Higher Education)


My Awards

2004

AMOS Priestly Medal for excellence in Atmospheric Science Research

2007

Nobel Peace Prize (IPCC, shared with all other IPCC Lead Authors)

2009

Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Medal

2010

Winner, Future Justice Prize, Copenhagen Diagnosis

2010

Winner, NSW Scientist of the Year (Environment, Water & Climate Change)

2012

The Atmospheric Science Librarians International “best book” in meteorology / climatology / atmospheric sciences for The Future of the World’s Climate

2012

Outstanding Academic Title awarded by the American Library Association's Choice publication for Copenhagen Diagnosis

2015

Elected Fellow of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

2015

Actuaries Institute of Australia Taylor Fry Prize (shared)

2016

Elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society

2017 & 2018

Eureka Prize, CSIRO Eureka Prize for Scientific leadership (shortlist)

2019

Awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

2020

Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research

2021 Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science

My Research Activities

Multiple. See https://climateextremes.org.au/member-profile/?memberID=8


My Research Supervision


Areas of supervision

Climate science, land surface processes, land-related extremes, climate modelling. Land processes can relate to hydrology, vegetation processes, or the role of the land surface in influencing weather and climate extremes. I'm interested in how land surface processes might be used to manage some extremes. 

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Location

Mathews Building

Contact

+61 2 9385 7075
57123