Dr Penny Maher

I joined the mathematics department of Exeter University in April 2015 as a post-doctoral research scientist. I am part of the NERC funded Impacts of Pacific Ocean warming trends (ImPOse) project led by Robin Chadwick. ImPOse seeks to determine the causes and impacts of tropical Pacific errors in climate models. In this role I am assessing present-day tropical Pacific model biases, their links to long-term SST trends and their impact on global climate.

Prior to ImPOse, I was part of the ParaCon project that aims to significantly improve the representation of convection across model scales from 1-100km. In this position I worked with Geoff Vallis and John Thuburn, with support from the Met Office. In collaboraion with Paul Earnshaw, we are building a flexable modelling framework for the UM (Flex-UM).

In 2014 I completed my PhD in climate science, supervised by Steven Sherwood, within the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. For my PhD I investigated how large-scale variability influences observed precipitation and assessed if CMIP models can reproduce the observed interactions. I also performed an aquaplanet modelling study aimed to increase intraseasonal variability, specifically the Madden-Julian Oscillation.

I founded and co-organise the Women in Climate (WiC) Network within the University of Exeter. We are an early career researcher network that have monthly catch-ups to discuss different themes relevant to women in climate and science more broadly. More information can be found on our WiC Network page.