I am a climate scientist working on climate variability and climate change, with a focus on how natural variability and externally influenced change combine to shape observed climate and projections of future change.

Over more than three decades, I have contributed to research on climate variability, climate change and extremes, particularly in the tropical Pacific and its influence on Australia and the broader Indo-Pacific region. This includes work on the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, and their interactions with climate change, published in journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Climate Change, Nature Geoscience, Nature Food, Climate Dynamics, and the Journal of Climate.

I was a Coordinating Lead Author for IPCC Working Group I and a member of the Core Writing Team for the IPCC Synthesis Report that informed the Paris Agreement. I have also held senior scientific leadership roles at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, including head of climate change research and head of climate monitoring and prediction services, and was Director of the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland.

I have also contributed to collaborative programs to strengthen climate science capability and climate services in Pacific Island Countries, working with national meteorological services and regional organisations. These programs have supported the use of climate information in managing droughts, floods and climate risk, and contributed to regional scientific capability. For example, I led the development of a project to enhance climate prediction services in numerous Pacific Island countries, and I co-led a program on Pacific climate change science that assisted 14 vulnerable countries in the Pacific and Timor-Leste adapt to climate change and to establish climate change services.

More recently I was the Bureau lead on the development of the National Environmental Science Program's Earth System and Climate Change Hub, and I co-led the development of a DFAT-funded project to increase community benefits from Early Warning Systems in the Solomon Islands

I am an Adjunct Professor in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University and in the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland.