Africa will be the continent hardest hit by climate change yet has contributed least to the drivers of that change. Adapting to future climate depends on confidence in the projected future change computed by climate models. In the case of African climate change there is urgent work to be done because the dynamics of the climate system are not well understood compared with many other regions of the world and the climate models require improvement for their projections to be trusted. You would have the opportunity to join a vibrant research group contributing to the understanding of African climate from analysis of both observational and model data sets. Recent doctoral students have made prize-winning contributions to this research, discovering new, important features of the circulation and the ways in which climate models do or don’t resolve them as well as the consequences of deficiencies for the projection of future climate. Recent NERC funded programmes which the team has been involved in provide us with access to the cutting edge of progress in climate modelling from the Met Office.
Qualifications and Experience
Richard is a Professor of Climate Science in the School of Geography and the Environment, and a senior faculty member. He is an extremely experienced D.Phil supervisor with a thriving research group.