Theme 1: Prediction and projection of extremes in a warming world
Keynote: Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Chief Investigator for CLEX and 21st Century Weather, Australian National University
Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick completed her PhD at the University of New South Wales in 2010. Based at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU, she is the deputy director of Engagement and Outreach in the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, and a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. She is also the vice president of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Prof Perkins-Kirkpatrick’s work investigates heatwaves globally and in Australia, including past and future changes, interactions with other climate extremes, and impacts on human health. Her latest research is exploring heatwaves in a net-zero world, as well as future projections of heat stress based on physiological limits. She also has interests in the attribution of climate extremes and their impacts to climate change, particularly impacts associated with human health and well-being. Prof Perkins-Kirkpatrick was the recipient of the 2014 Director’s Prize from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and the 2016 Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Early Career Researcher Award. In 2021 she won the Australian Academy of Science Dorothy Hill Medal, as well as the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Communications and Outreach Award, and is listed as a Clarivate highly-cited researcher in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Guest speaker: Professor Amanda Maycock, Professor in Climate Dynamics, at the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS) at the University of Leeds.
Areas of expertise: Climate science; climate change; climate modelling; midlatitude dynamics; tropical widening; chemistry-climate interactions; stratosphere; ozone layer; radiative transfer
Theme 2: The role of dynamics in understanding extremes
Keynote: Professor Michael Reeder, Chief Investigator, Monash University
Professor Michael Reeder completed a PhD in Applied Mathematics at Monash University, before holding postdoctoral positions at the University of Munich (Germany) and the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (USA). Michael’s research is focused principally on the dynamics of weather producing systems, and has published on a wide variety of topics, including fronts, tropopause folding, extra-tropical cyclones, Rossby waves, heat waves, tropical cyclones, gravity waves, solitary waves, convection, boundary layers, the Hadley and Walker circulations, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and bushfires. Michael is a Fellow of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS), the inaugural winner of the Zillman Medal (AMOS) and the Loewe Prize (Royal Meteorological Society, Australian Branch), and has given the AMOS Clarke Lecture. He is a past president of AMOS, past Chair of the Expert Group on Weather and Weather Prediction, has held memberships on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence (CoE) Advisory Selection Committee and the ARC College of Experts Physics, Chemistry and Geosciences Panel, and is a past Director of the Centre for Dynamical Meteorology and Oceanography. Michael has been the principal supervisor for more than 50 graduate students.
Guest speaker: Cathryn Birch, Professor in Meteorology and Climate in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.
Cathryn is a Professor in Meteorology and Climate in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds. She works to better understand the causes of high impact weather to improve weather forecasts, flood forecasts and Early Warning System capability. She currently leads the Humid Heat Extremes in the Global (Sub)Tropics (H2X) project, which aims to quantify the atmospheric and surface drivers of humid heatwaves. Whilst historically a tropical meteorologist, her research has broadened recently to include climate-health topics. Cathryn previously worked as a Senior Scientist at the Met Office and has continued to collaborate closely with them on a wide range of projects. She won the European Meteorological Society Young Scientist Award in 2014 and was part to the core team at the University of Leeds that contributed to research recognised by the 2010 Queen’s Anniversary Prize.
Theme 3: High resolution modelling to understand extremes
Keynote: Professor Neil Holbrook, Chief Investigator for CLEX and 21st Century Weather, University of Tasmania
Professor Holbrook completed his PhD in physical oceanography/applied mathematics at the University of Sydney in 1995. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Climatic Impacts Centre at Macquarie University, he commenced a lectureship there in 1996. He moved to the University of Tasmania in 2008 and was promoted to Professor of Ocean and Climate Dynamics in the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in 2018. Holbrook’s interests and expertise are in the ocean’s role in climate, ocean and climate variability, extremes, and climate change. Most recently, he has concentrated on developing process-based understanding and improved knowledge of the predictability of marine heatwaves (MHWs) – the ocean analogue of atmospheric heatwaves that can cause devastating impacts on life in the sea. Holbrook co-leads an international Working Group on MHWs and is a member of the international CLIVAR Research Focus on Marine Heatwaves in the Global Ocean. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science. He is a former President of the International Commission on Climate of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science/International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (2011-2019) and Associate Editor of the Journal of Climate (2006-2008). Holbrook previously led Australia’s National Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Marine Biodiversity and Resources (2009-2013). Holbrook is recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2021-2023) and identified on the Reuters list of 1000 most influential climate scientists (2021).
Guest speaker: Professor Negin Nazarian, Chief Investigator for CLEX and 21st Century Weather
Dr. Negin Nazarian, a Scientia Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, is a recognized leader in the urban climate community. Nationally, she serves as Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Weather of the 21st Century, prestigious hubs renowned for their groundbreaking research and influence on climate science in Australia. Internationally, she chairs the Board on Urban Environment at the American Meteorological Association, playing a pivotal role in advancing urban climate research and networks on a global scale.
Negin’s expertise as an urban climatologist focuses on understanding the complex interactions between the built environment and climate, with a keen interest in how these dynamics impact people. Her notable accolades include the prestigious 2023 Timothy Oke Award for Original Research in urban overheating as well as the 2024 NSW Young Tall Poppy Award, highlighting her pioneering contributions to the field. Negin leads the Climate-Resilient Cities (CRC) research lab at UNSW, a multidisciplinary team dedicated to addressing pressing challenges of urban climate, particularly focusing on urban heat exposure and ventilation. The CRC’s mission is dedicated to advancing urban climate modeling, refining urban canopy parameterizations, and employing urban climate informatics to enhance our understanding of human exposure to urban climate challenges. Prior to her tenure at UNSW, Dr. Nazarian served as the SMART Scholar at the Singapore-MIT Alliance following her graduation from the University of California San Diego.