I am a Research Professor at NORCE Climate & Environment and a member of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. Since receiving my PhD from Maynooth University in 2007, I have worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Oxford.
In a broad sense, my research focuses on advancing our understanding of climate and weather extremes, including their response to global warming for the benefit of society. Recently, my work has focused on improving our current understanding of the impacts, and associated drivers, of Land Use Land Cover Change on regional climate and weather extremes, particularly in sub-polar and alpine climates. I also have a keen interest in the response of polar and tropical cyclones to global climate change, and the role of atmosphere-ocean interactions in their response. My research is mainly undertaken in collaboration with scientists from other disciplines to understand the ways climate change impacts society (e.g. how will tropical cyclones affect reef ecosystems in the future?) and the ways climate mitigation can impact the climate system (e.g. how will afforestation policies impact the local climate system?).
I lead large international projects such as PolarRES, which is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, and the Big Data and Climate Frontier project which is funded by the Research Council of Norway’s prestigious FRIKLIM programme. I am also involved in a number of international initiatives, such as the WCRP's PolarCORDEX and CORDEX LUCAS initiatives.
