Jan Zika is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He carries out fundamental research on the role of the ocean and water in the changing climate. He has led a team of researchers who used ocean observations to demonstrate that as the climate warms, wet parts of the globe are getting wetter and dry parts are getting dryer. His research has also helped to establish that the atmosphere is unlikely to become more energetic (windier overall) in a warming climate as having more water in the system makes the atmospheric heat engine less efficient. 

After completing a PhD at CSIRO in Hobart Jan has worked at the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, the University of Southampton and Imperial College London and has been awarded both a National Environment Research Council Postdoctoral and Senior Fellowships. In 2018 Jan was awarded the Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award by the European Geosciences Union's Ocean Science Division and in 2020 he was awarded the Australian Academy of Science Anton Hales Medal.