Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick | |
|---|---|
 Perkins-Kirkpatrick in December 2020 | |
| Born | 1983[ citation needed ] Sydney, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Scientist |
| Known for | Heatwave research |
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is an Australian climate scientist and expert in heatwave research. She was awarded a NSW Young Tall Poppy in 2013 and received the Dorothy Hill award in 2021. [1] She has extensive science communication experience.
Perkins-Kirkpatrick is a climate scientist working on heatwave events, [2] [3] including how heatwaves are defined, trends of heatwaves, projected future changes, physical drivers of heatwaves, and anthropogenic influences driving observed events. [4] She was awarded an ARC DECRA, and then subsequently, awarded an ARC Future Fellowship at the Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW. She was at the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre from the years 2012 to 2022, and then moved to UNSW Canberra during 2022-2024. [5] She was awarded the Young Tall Poppy prize for communication in science skills in 2013. [6] Sarah is now a Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University (ANU). She has spent much of her career providing commentary on climate change and heatwaves. [7] [4] [2]
"The less we warm the planet, the less bad heatwave changes will be. They're not looking good." [8]
Perkins-Kirkpatrick has completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at the CSIRO division of Marine and Atmospheric Research, and a second at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. She has held and undertaken workshops Internationally, in both Australia and in the Pacific Islands, where she was communicating the science of climate change amongst community groups which had little experience or literacy in climate science. Perkins-Kirkpatrick also held a role on the World Meteorological Organisation's Expert Team – in the sector on Climate Risk and Sector specific Climate Indices. In 2011, she also took part in the event where scientists communicate with politicians, called Science meets Parliament.
Perkins-Kirkpatrick specialises in researching and science communication of climate change, climate projections, extreme events, as well as, heatwaves, and extreme heat events. She has recently worked in marine heatwaves, such as the marine heatwave along the coast of South-East Australia in 2022. [9]
Perkins-Kirkpatrick is also a member of the core group of the Resilient Futures Collective, part of UNSW. The Resilient Futures Collective focusses on research on droughts, floods, bushfires, and cyclones, which cause damage and disruption to rural and regional communities. The Collective examines how risk reduction through good governance, planning, and vulnerability analyses can minimise the impacts of natural disasters. [10]
Perkins-Kirkpatrick has written for and been quoted in the International and Australian media many times, [12] describing the impacts and science behind climate change and heatwaves, and more recently, marine heatwaves. [13] Her research has been described, and she has participated in media interviews, in Cosmos, [8] Carbon Brief, [13] as well as provided commentary on the BBC, [14] [15] Triple J's Hack, Radio National, [16] the Sydney Morning Herald, [17] [18] the 7:30 Report, Science. [12] She has participated in radio interviews, print media, and written regular blog posts on heatwaves and the impacts of climate change. [19]
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive universities. It is ranked 19th in the world in the 2024 QS World University Rankings.
A heat wave or heatwave, sometimes described as extreme heat, is a period of abnormally hot weather. Definitions vary but are similar. A heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the area and to normal temperatures for the season. Temperatures that humans from a hotter climate consider normal, can be regarded as a heat wave in a cooler area. This would be the case if the warm temperatures are outside the normal climate pattern for that area. High humidity often occurs during heat waves as well. This is especially the case in oceanic climate countries. Heat waves have become more frequent, and more intense over land, across almost every area on Earth since the 1950s, the increase in frequency and duration being caused by climate change.
Mark Diesendorf is an Australian academic and environmentalist, known for his work in sustainable development and renewable energy. He currently researches at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He was formerly professor of environmental science and founding director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney and before that a principal research scientist with CSIRO, where he was involved in early research on integrating wind power into electricity grids. His most recent books are The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation (2023) and Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change (2014).
Matthew England is a physical oceanographer and climate scientist. He is currently Scientia Professor of Ocean & Climate Dynamics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
The Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) is a research initiative established in 2007 at the University of New South Wales. It is the lead node of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), and formerly led the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS) from 2011 to 2018.
Katharina Gaus was a German-Australian immunologist and molecular microscopist. She was an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and founding head of the Cellular Membrane Biology Lab, part of the Centre for Vascular Research at the University of New South Wales. Gaus used new super-resolution fluorescence microscopes to examine the plasma membrane within intact living cells, and study cell signalling at the level of single molecules to better understand how cells "make decisions". A key discovery of Gaus and her team was how T-cells decide to switch on the body's immune system to attack diseases. Her work is of importance to the development of drugs that can work with T-cells in support of the immune system.
Emma Letitia Johnston is the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney. She was former, Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales and President of Science & Technology Australia. She is an authority in marine ecology and a former Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UNSW.
Veena Sahajwalla is an inventor and Professor of Materials Science in the Faculty of Science at UNSW Australia. She is the Director of the UNSW SM@RT Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow.
Helen Marian Lochhead is an Australian architect and urbanist who combines academic and expert advisory roles with practice. Her career has focused on the inception, planning, design, and delivery of complex urban projects ranging from city improvements programs to major urban regeneration projects. She has held numerous influential roles in government, industry and universities including Dean, Faculty of Built Environment and Pro Vice-Chancellor Precincts at UNSW Sydney, National President of the Australian Institute of Architects and Deputy Government Architect in NSW. She has served on various Panels and Boards including the NSW Independent Planning Commission, The Australian Heritage Council and the National Capital Authority.
Tracey Rogers is a marine ecologist at the University of New South Wales who studies how mammals survive changing environments.
Jessica Melbourne-Thomas is a marine, Antarctic, and climate change scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia. Her research focuses on climate change, its effects on the marine environment, and how to adapt and response to these changes.
Katrin Juliane Meissner is a physical oceanographer and climate scientist known for climate models assessing the impact of abrupt climate change on terrestrial and marine biogeochemical cycling.
Kaarin Anstey is an Australian Laureate Fellow and one of Australia's top dementia scientists. She is Co-Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where she is Scientia Professor of Psychology. Kaarin Anstey is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. She is a Director of the NHMRC Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, Senior Principal Research Scientist at NeuRA and leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Cognitive Health and the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute.
A marine heatwave is a period of abnormally high seawater temperatures compared to the typical temperatures in the past for a particular season and region. Marine heatwaves are caused by a variety of drivers. These include shorter term weather events such as fronts, intraseasonal events, annual, and decadal (10-year) modes like El Niño events, and human-caused climate change. Marine heatwaves affect ecosystems in the oceans. For example, marine heatwaves can lead to severe biodiversity changes such as coral bleaching, sea star wasting disease, harmful algal blooms, and mass mortality of benthic communities. Unlike heatwaves on land, marine heatwaves can extend over vast areas, persist for weeks to months or even years, and occur at subsurface levels.
Moninya Roughan is a professor of Oceanography at the University of New South Wales Australia,. Roughan is the head of the Coastal and Regional Oceanography Lab and is an authority on the oceanography of the East Australian Current. She has led major projects for industry, government, the Australian Research Council and the New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. She has held leadership roles in Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System since 2007.
Jane Alexandra McAdam is an Australian legal scholar, and expert in climate change and refugees. She is a Scientia Professor at the University of NSW, and is the inaugural Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2021 for “distinguished service to international refugee law, particularly to climate change”.
Lisa Victoria Alexander is an international expert on heatwaves. She received the Dorothy Hill Medal for her research on climate extremes, the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, and has provided evidence that the frequency and intensity of heatwaves will be influenced by the quantity of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, in particular carbon dioxide. She was a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, including the fifth assessment report.
Tracy Ainsworth is a marine biologist and Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, working on coral reefs, and the biology of the Great Barrier Reef. Her research covers the biology of stresses, cells, disease, immunity and symbiosis. She was awarded the Dorothy Hill Medal for science, from the Australian Academy of Science, for research on coral reef, stresses and impacts of temperature on coral health.
Andréa Sardinha Taschetto or A. S. Taschetto; Andréa Taschetto is a climate change scientist at the University of New South Wales, and winner of the Dorothy Hill award. She was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2016. Her research has contributed to improved understanding of the role of oceans, on climate variability at regional scales, and from seasonal to mulit-decade timescales. This research also has assisted with future climate projections.
Wenjie Zhang is a Professor and Head of the Data and Knowledge Research Group within the School of Computer Science and Engineering, the University of New South Wales. Her most notable breakthrough is in the area of optimization strategies to process computationally complex large graphs. Her work is among the first to identify that graph complexity relies only on the small size of the query input and output rather than the size of the whole data graph, which could be a web scale, such as in social media networks. Her recent research focuses on algorithms, indexes, and systems in large scale graphs and their applications especially in social network analysis.
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