Blog icon

Mr Kevin Hennessy

Honorary Research Fellow

https://people.csiro.au/H/K/Kevin-Hennessy

Contact

Please enter a valid first name

Please enter a valid last name

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter your message to send to the contact

Contact details:

PRIVATE BAG NO 1
ASPENDALE VIC 3195 AUSTRALIA

Biography

Kevin Hennessy is a member of the Climate Research Centre at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere. He has been involved in climate change research for over 30 years. His expertise is in regional climate projections for Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. This includes climate products and services that raise awareness and inform impact assessment for decision-making.

Kevin has over 200 publications, and has been an IPCC Author and/or Reviewer since 1996. He has spoken at many national and international conferences and workshops.

He was a Team Leader from 2008-2013, managing 9-14 staff. From May 2013 to June 2014, he was in the Climate Adaptation Flagship, managing a Theme comprised of 50 people, 30 projects and an annual budget of around $9 million. From July 2014 to July 2016, he led the Climate Variability, Extreme Weather and Adaptation Group of 19 staff, which focused on climate products and services that inform impact assessment and adaptation. From August 2016 to February 2017, he was the Interim Research Director for the CSIRO Climate Science Centre, which has over 125 staff, and an annual budget of about $20 million. He was Deputy Director (CSIRO) of the NESP Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub from July 2015 to Feb 2017, then Leader of the Hub from March to June 2017 before retiring. He is now a casual employee working as a Lead Author on the IPCC Sixth Assessment.

Academic Qualifications

  • 2002

    Postgraduate Diploma in Science Communication
    Central Qld Uni

  • 1986

    Bachelor of Science (Honours)
    Monash Uni

Professional Experiences

  • 1989-2007

    Member of Climate Impact Group

  • 2008-2009

    Leader of the Risk, Adaptation and Policy team
    Climate Variability & Change Program

  • 2009-2013

    Leader of the Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability team

  • 2013-2014

    Theme Leader, Pathways to Adaptation
    Climate Adaptation Flagship

  • 2014-2016

    Group Leader, Climate Variability Extreme Weather & Adaptation
    CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere

  • 2017-2017

    Leader of NESP ESCC Hub
    CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere

  • 2018-2021

    Lead Author of IPCC AR6 Working Group 2 chapter on Australasia
    CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere

Achievements and Awards

  • 1990-2003

    2003 Sherman Eureka Prize for Environmental Research, shared with CSIRO Climate Impact Group

  • 2004-2007

    Contributed to the reports of the IPCC, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007