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Professor Amanda Maycock

Professor Amanda Maycock

  • Position: Professor in Climate Dynamics
  • Areas of expertise: Climate science; climate change; climate modelling; midlatitude dynamics; tropical widening; chemistry-climate interactions; stratosphere; ozone layer; radiative transfer
  • Email: A.C.Maycock@leeds.ac.uk
  • Phone: +44(0)113 343 9793
  • Location: 10.21 Priestley Building
  • Website: X | Googlescholar | Researchgate | ORCID

Profile

I am Professor in Climate Dynamics in the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS) at the University of Leeds.

Prizes: 

  • 2018 Philip Leverhulme Prize (Leverhulme Trust)
  • 2019 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Researchers (European Geosciences Union)
  • 2022 STAC Outstanding Early Career Award (American Meteorological Society)
  • 2023 water@leeds Water Woman Award for Research Excellence

Research Fellowships: 

  • CIRES Senior Scientist Visiting Fellowship, NOAA, Boulder, 2016
  • NERC Independent Research Fellow, 2015-20
  • University Academic Fellow, 2015-17
  • Junior Research Fellow, St Catharine's College, Cambridge, 2013-15
  • AXA Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge, 2013-15

Leadership:

Assessments:

Community service:

Responsibilities

  • Academic Lead for Physical Climate Change Group
  • NERC PANORAMA DTP Atmosphere and Climate Theme Leader
  • NERC UNRISK CDT ICAS Representative

Research interests

My research focuses on large-scale climate dynamics including processes affecting climate variability and change.

Research themes:

  • Climate dynamics
  • Climate projections
  • Atmospheric circulation
  • Atmosphere-ocean coupling
  • Stratosphere-troposphere interactions
  • Radiative transfer

Research groups:

Current projects:

  • ExtAnt Drivers and Impacts of Extreme Weather Events in Antarctica (co-I, 2024-, NERC HT)
  • TWISTA The Wide-ranging Impacts of STratospheric smoke Aerosols (co-I, 2024-, NERC PtF)
  • Contrails from SAF and H2 combustion; from lab experiments to global mitigation policy, (co-I, 2024-, NERC JetZero)
  • Contrail Assessment of Future Aircraft and Propulsion Architectures (co-I, 2024-, NERC JetZero)
  • Ambrosia (co-I, 2024-, H2020)
  • Global Health Attribution Project (co-I 2024-; Wellcome Trust)
  • Climate Ambassadors Programme (Yorkshire and Humber hub lead, 2024-, Department for Education)
  • Philip Leverhulme Prize (PI, 2019-2025, Leverhulme Trust)

Past projects:

Submitted:

  • Dow, W. J., A. C. Maycock, A. N. Ross, R. S. Williams, T. J. Bracegirdle, Dynamical precursors to summer temperature extremes on the Antarctic Peninsula, GRL, in review.
  • King, A. D., E. Alastrué de Asenjo, A. Maycock, T. Ziehn, A. R. Borowiak, S. Clark, N. Maher, Detectability of post-net zero climate changes and the effects of delay in emissions cessation, Earth’s Future, in revision.
  • Maycock, A. C., C. M. McKenna, M. Priestley, J. Perez, J. F. Lockwood, North Atlantic seasonal climate variability significantly modulates extreme winter Euro-Atlantic extratropical cyclone hazards, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1131/, in revision.
  • Osmolska, W., C. Chemel, A. C. Maycock, P. Field, A methodology for tracking cold spells in space and time: development, evaluation and applications, Weather and Climate Dynamics, https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1014/, in revision.
  • Vacca, A. V., J. Perez, K. Bellomo, J. Casadevall, I. Davies, J. von Hardenberg, A. C. Maycock, The observed decrease in North Atlantic jet stream daily variability is due to climate change, submitted.

In preparation:

  • Aviles Podgurski, L., P. Martineau, H. Lu, A. Yamamoto, T. Phillips, T. Bracegirdle, A. C. Maycock, A. Orr, A. Fleming, A. E. Hogg and G. Muszynski, Impact, drivers and pathways of two Arctic Atmospheric Rivers in April 2020, in prep.
  • Charnay, V., C. M. McKenna, A. C. Maycock, Uncertainty in projected sea surface temperature trends and North Pacific atmospheric circulation, Clim. Dyn., in prep.
  • Romero Jure, P.V., D. L. Finney, A. C. Maycock, A. Mackie, H. Lambert, et al., Observational quantification of high clouds radiative effects and links with aerosols in the Tropical Pacific, in prep
  • Shen, T. and A. C. Maycock, Multi-year ENSO significantly elevates risk of persistent drought and wet conditions across the tropics, in prep.
  • Zhang, C., J. Zhang, A. C. Maycock, J. Screen, Barents Kara sea ice variability drives stronger tropospheric teleconnections after 2000 due to weakened stratospheric polar vortex, in prep.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD, Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate, University of Reading, 2012
  • MSc, Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate, University of Reading, 2008
  • MPhys, Physics with Astrophysics, University of Manchester, 2006

Professional memberships

  • Member, Royal Meteorological Society
  • Member, European Geophysical Union

Student education

Current research group:

PDRAs

  • Will Dow (ExtAnt, 2024-)
  • Jannetta Richardson (JetZero, 2025-)
  • Maria Chara Karypidou (Ambrosia, 2025-)
  • Coralie Adams (GHAP, 2025-)

PhD students

  • Luisa Alvires Podgurski (SENSE CDT; with BAS, co-supervisor with Hua Lu), Using Earth-Observation data to classify Atmospheric Rivers and investigate their impacts on the stability of West Antarctic ice shelves, 2023-
  • Yvonne Anderson (SENSE CDT; CASE with Met Office), Can air-sea coupling solve the signal-to-noise paradox in climate predictions?, 2023-
  • Sara Bennie (PANORAMA DTP; CASE with Met Office), Human influence on climate variability, 2024-
  • Eswyn Chen (CASE with Met Office), Robust future projections for Europe, 2021-
  • Arundhati Kalyan (PANORAMA DTP; CASE with Met Office), Decadal modulation of El Nino Southern Oscillation and its global impacts, 2022-
  • Zhuo Li (Nanjing-Leeds Joint PhD), Dynamics and predictability of record breaking China heatwaves, 2024-
  • Weronika Osmolska (PANORAMA DTP; CASE with Met Office, co-supervisor with Charles Chemel), Nature of cold-air outbreaks in Europe in a warming climate, 2022-
  • Jacob Perez (EPSRC Fluids CDT; with Met Office), Regime behaviour of Earth’s jet streams and role for recent extreme weather, 2020-
  • Paula Romero Jure (SENSE CDT; with NOC, co-supervisor with Declan Finney), Ocean-atmosphere influences on tropical Pacific cloud feedbacks, 2023-
  • Jinhao Wu (co-supervised with Chetan Deva), Machine Learning predictions for ENSO, 2024-

MRes students

  • David Burdon
  • Xinlu Lyu
  • Xiaonuo Chen

Past group members

Chongyang Zhang (CSC visitor, 2023-24; now PhD student Lanzhou University); Tong Shen (CSC visitor, 2023-24; now PhD student IAP); Dr James Norman (PhD student 2017-2024; now Research Analyst at Global Energy Monitor); Andrea Vito Vacca (Visitor 2024, PhD student at Turin University); Grasiele Romanzini-Bezerra (RA 2023-24, now PhD student on EPSRC Fluids CDT); Dr Ryan Williams (StratClust project 2023-24; now PDRA at BAS); Dr Leo Saffin (PDRA Leeds 2023; now PDRA Reading Uni); Dr Paloma Trascasa Castro (PhD student Leeds 2019-23; now PDRA BSC); Dr Christine McKenna (PDRA Leeds 2019-2023; now Climate Scientist at JBA Risk); Mr Vincent Charnay (Research Assistant Leeds 2022-23; now PhD student at Victoria Uni Wellington NZ); Dr Will Dow (PhD Leeds 2023; now PDRA at Leeds); Prashant Mahendran (MRes Leeds 2022; now Climate Scientist UK Government); Auriel Franklin (MRes Leeds 2022); Dr Tom Wood (PhD Leeds 2021; now PDRA at Uni. Sheffield); Sachin Jugjeewon (MRes Leeds, 2021; now AI researcher at BT); Dr Andreas Chrysanthou (PhD Leeds, 2020; PDRA Leeds, 2020-21); Marjahn Finlayson (MRes Leeds, 2020, now Cape Eleuthera Institute); Ruari Phipps (BSc Leeds, 2020, now Data Analyst at Planet Mark); Dr Jake Smith (PhD Cambridge, 2019, now PDRA at Uni. Cambridge); David Feitschinger (MSc Leeds, 2018, now consultant at Arup); Ella Wingard (Summer intern, 2018, now consultant at Ricardo); Rohan Patel (BSc Leeds, 2018, now consultant at Ricardo); Dr Scott Yiu (PhD Cambridge, 2018, now data scientist at De Beers); Dr Michelle McCrystall (PhD Cambridge, 2017, now PDRA at Uni. Aukland); Tom Bartle (MRes Leeds, 2017, now Air Quality Consultant at Amey); Gibbon Masukwedza (MRes Leeds, 2016, now PDRA at Uni. Surrey); Tom Claxton (BA Cambridge, 2014, now lecturer at Lancaster Uni); Grainne McGread (BA Cambridge, 2013, now at Bank of England); Owain Rutherford (summer student Leeds, 2017, now Data Engineer at Uni. Stirling); Alice Drinkwater (summer student Leeds, 2016, now Associate Editor at Springer Nature); Digory Smith (BA Cambridge, 2014, now Data Scientist at Eedi).

Research groups and institutes

  • Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
  • Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>