Alex

Profile

I am a Research Fellow in the Physical Climate and Cryosphere group within the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, working with Professor Amanda Maycock on the NERC-funded ExtAnt project.

My research broadly focuses on detecting and understanding climate change, particularly how forced changes emerge from natural variability and how climate extremes are changing.

I completed a Master of Climate Science at the University of Melbourne, where I investigated the influence of the Madden–Julian Oscillation on rainfall trends in northwest Australia. This work was published in Geophysical Research Letters and showed how changes in large-scale tropical variability can contribute to regional rainfall trends.

I then completed my PhD in Climate Science at the University of Melbourne in 2026. My PhD focused on the detection and emergence of climate change, including how different statistical methods affect estimates of when climate signals become distinguishable from natural variability. This work led to research comparing methods for estimating time of emergence, examining the detectability of climate change after global CO₂ emissions reach net zero, and assessing different approaches for estimating the underlying forced climate response.

Across this work, I have published on climate change detection and time of emergence, climate stabilisation under net zero emissions, climate variability and regional rainfall change, and statistical methods for extracting climate signals from noisy observations and model simulations. I have also contributed to collaborative research on climate extremes and hydroclimate change.

I joined the University of Leeds in July 2026. My current research focuses on Antarctic extreme heat: how these events are changing, what is driving those changes, and how much human influence has altered their likelihood and intensity. I use large climate model ensembles and single-forcing experiments to separate the effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols and stratospheric ozone depletion, and to distinguish changes associated with atmospheric circulation from the underlying thermodynamic warming. I also use extreme value methods and observational datasets to evaluate changes in the probability and intensity of individual events.

Alongside my climate research, I am interested in scientific software and open environmental data. At the University of Melbourne, I designed and built a live weather station platform combining real-time observations and all-sky camera imagery with a Python-based API and web dashboard.

Research interests

• Antarctic weather and climate extremes
• Extreme event attribution
• Detection and time of emergence of climate change
• Climate stabilisation and net zero
• Large ensembles and single-forcing climate model experiments
• Climate variability and atmospheric circulation
• Statistical methods for climate science
• Scientific software and open climate data

Qualifications

• PhD in Climate Science, University of Melbourne, 2026
• Master of Climate Science, University of Melbourne, 2020
• Bachelor of Science, University of Melbourne, 2018