Professor Amanda Maycock

Professor Amanda Maycock

Profile

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

We are advertising fully-funded PhD positions in the group for October 2025 entry available to home and international students:

Please contact me if you are interested.

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

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)
  • Climate Ambassadors Programme (Yorkshire and Humber hub lead, 2024-, Department for Education)
  • Philip Leverhulme Prize (PI, 2019-2025, Leverhulme Trust)

Past projects:

Submitted:

  • Anderson, A., J. Perez and A. C. Maycock, Minimal influence of future Arctic sea ice loss on North Atlantic jet stream morphology, WCD, https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-2506, revised.
  • Shen, T. and A. C. Maycock, Multi-year ENSO significantly elevates risk of persistent drought and wet conditions across the tropics, Communications Earth and Environment, under review.
  • Trascasa-Castro, P., Y. Ruprich-Robert, A. C. Maycock, Future climate response to observed strong El Nino analogues, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, submitted.
  • Williams, R. S., A. C. Maycock, V. Charnay, J. Knight, I. Polichtchouk, Exceptionally strong polar vortex favoured intense UK and northern European storminess in February 2022, Communications Earth and Environment, in revision.

In preparation:

  • Charnay, V., C. M. McKenna, A. C. Maycock, Uncertainty in projected sea surface temperature trends and North Pacific atmospheric circulation, Clim. Dyn., in prep.
  • Maycock, A. C., C. M. McKenna, M. Priestley, J. Perez, J. F. Lockwood, The relationship of European extratropical cyclone hazards to large-scale modes of variability, in prep.
  • Norman, J. and A. C. Maycock, Skillful seasonal forecasts of wind generation in India during the western summer monsoon, Renewable Energy.
  • Osmolska, W., C. Chemel, P. Field, A. C. Maycock, Global spatio-temporal identification of cold spells, in prep. 
  • Vito Vacca, A., J. Perez, J. Casadevall, I. Davies, A. C. Maycock, Robust decrease in North Atlantic eddy driven jet variability under future global warming, 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>Any research projects I'm currently working 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-)

PhD students

  • Luisa Alvires Podgurski (SENSE CDT; with BAS, co-supervisor), 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), 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), Ocean-atmosphere influences on tropical Pacific cloud feedbacks, 2023-
  • Jinhao Wu, Machine Learning predictions for ENSO, 2024-

Academic visitors

  • Chongyang Zhang, 2023-
  • Tong Shen, 2023-

Past group members

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
  • Climate Science and Impacts
  • Atmospheric and Cloud Dynamics
  • 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>