The CLEX node at University of New South Wales is offering several PhD scholarships on a competitive basis. Details of how to apply are at the bottom of this page. Immediately below are some example projects offered by our researchers:

Prof Lisa Alexander
Climate Change Research Centre.
Email:
l.alexander@unsw.edu.au

  • Global precipitation extremes and their drivers
  • Australian extremes – heavy rainfall, droughts and atmospheric and marine heatwaves
  • Development of global climate datasets and model evaluation
  • Climate extremes and human security (water resources, health, food security)

Prof Jason Evans
Climate Change Research Centre
Email:
jason.evans@unsw.edu.au

  • Regional climate modelling and projections
  • Water vapour source regions for rain falling in the Murray-Darling basin and how they might change due to climate change.
  • Examining the likelihood of drought termination
  • Land-fire-atmosphere coupling and extreme fire behaviour
  • Urban climate (particularly for Sydney) influences on rainfall and extreme heat

Prof Andy Pitman
Director CLEX
Email:
a.pitman@unsw.edu.au

  • Projects linked to improving the representation of land processes in weather and climate models
  • Projects linked to examining how the land influences weather and climate on daily, seasonal, annual or longer timescales
  • Projects linked to how the land might be used to reduce the risks associated with climate change

A. Prof Melissa Hart
Climate Change Research Centre
Email:
melissa.hart@unsw.edu.au

  • Quantifying the urban heat island
  • Investigating the impacts of global climate change versus the urban heat island on the climate of cities
  • Representing urban areas in climate models
  • Impacts of surface and land-use characteristics on urban climate

Dr Negin Nazarian
School of Architecture and Design
Email:
n.nazarian@unsw.edu.au

  • Urban climate modeling (including micro-scale and mesoscale analyses) 
  • Urban canopy parameterizations
  • Computational Fluid Dynamis and Large Eddy Simulations of urban flow 
  • Urban heat exposure and impact analyses 

Prof Steven Sherwood
Climate Change Research Centre
Email:
s.sherwood@unsw.edu.au

  • New theoretical models of atmospheric convection
  • Fluid dynamics of gust front outflows and cold pools
  • Testing theoretical limits on near-surface temperature and humidity
  • Cascade from small-scale behaviour to global-scale climate changes

A Prof Andrea Taschetto
Climate Change Research Centre
Email:
a.taschetto@unsw.edu.au

  • Investigating atmospheric teleconnections from tropical oceans to Australia
  • Understanding the effect of the combined modes of variability for Australian droughts
  • Quantifying the influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation diversity on east Australian rainfall
  • Assess future projections of Australian droughts due to changes in the mean state and variability in a warming world

Dr Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick
School of Science, UNSW Canberra
Email:
sarah.kirkpatrick@unsw.edu.au

In addition, being part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes provides a supportive environment for students, with a focus on increasing collaborative research through attendance at Centre and external events, and travel support for PhD students to visit our international partners and Centre meetings.  Most projects involve other universities, the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, or one of our international partners.

Please contact supervisors directly if you have questions about possible projects. If you are interested in applying, please complete our Expression of Interest form. Note- this is not an official application, if this expression of interest is accepted you will be invited to apply for admission and scholarship