Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick

Perkins-Kirkpatrick specialises in researching and science communication of climate change, climate projections, extreme events, as well as, heatwaves, and extreme heat events. She has recently worked in marine heatwaves, such as the marine heatwave along the coast of South-East Australia in 2022.

Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is an Australian climate scientist and expert in heatwave research. She was awarded a NSW Young Tall Poppy in 2013 and received the Dorothy Hill award in 2021. She has extensive science communication experience.

Perkins-Kirkpatrick is a climate scientist working on heatwave events, including how heatwaves are defined, trends of heatwaves, projected future changes, physical drivers of heatwaves, and anthropogenic influences driving observed events. She was awarded an ARC DECRA, and then subsequently, awarded an ARC Future Fellowship at the Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW. She was at the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre from the years 20122 to 2022, and then moved to UNSW Canberra. She was awarded the Young Tall Poppy prize for communication in science skills in 2013. She has spent much of her career providing commentary on climate change and heatwaves.

Perkins-Kirkpatrick has completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at the CSIRO division of Marine and Atmospheric Research, and a second at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. She has held and undertaken workshops Internationally, in both Australia and in the Pacific Islands, where she was communicating the science of climate change amongst community groups which had little experience or literacy in climate science. Perkins-Kirkpatrick also held a role on the World Meteorological Organisation's Expert Team – in the sector on Climate Risk and Sector specific Climate Indices. In 2011, she also took part in the event where scientists communicate with politicians, called Science meets Parliament.