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Dr Rachel Law

Group Leader

https://people.csiro.au/L/R/Rachel-Law

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Contact details:

PRIVATE BAG NO 1
ASPENDALE VIC 3195 AUSTRALIA

Biography

Dr Rachel Law leads the 'Modelling the Earth System' group in the Climate Science Centre. The group comprises four teams with skills in coupled climate modelling, data assimilation, land surface modelling, Australian and global carbon assessments, integrated assessment modelling and micrometeorology. A major focus for the group is developing and running two versions of the ACCESS model for participation in the World Climate Research Programme's Coupled Modelling Intercomparison Project (CMIP6).

Rachel helps to coordinate land surface and climate model development across the Australian research community. She was previously coordinator of the CABLE land surface model management committee and is a member of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) National Research Infrastructure Scientific Advisory Committee.

Rachel's research interests include:
* extending the capability of the ACCESS climate model to also simulate the carbon cycle
* using ACCESS experiments to explore interactions between the carbon cycle, climate and atmospheric aerosols
* contributing to submission of carbon-related ACCESS simulations to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6)
* interpreting the atmospheric measurements of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, to better understand where anthropogenic carbon is taken up by the land biosphere and oceans

Current Roles

  • ACCESS group leader
    Managing 5 teams focussed on modelling multi-annual to centennial climate variability and change, interactions with the carbon cycle and process studies supported by ocean observations and wind tunnel experiments.

  • Principal Research Scientist
    Using ACCESS-ESM to explore carbon-climate interactions. Interpreting atmospheric measurements of greenhouse gases.

  • Aspendale Site Leader
    Provides local leadership for the CSIRO Aspendale Site

Academic Qualifications

  • 1993

    PhD
    University of Melbourne

  • 1988

    B. Sc. (Hons)
    University of Melbourne

Professional Experiences

  • 2015-2016

    Land surface modelling team leader
    CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere

  • 2003-2009

    Senior Research Scientist
    CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

  • 2000-2003

    Research Scientist
    CSIRO Atmospheric Research

  • 1994-2000

    Research Fellow
    CRC for Southern Hemisphere Research, Monash University

Achievements and Awards

  • 2019-current

    Fellow
    Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

Other highlights

  • 1996-2008

    Leadership role in TransCom project, an international project assessing transport model uncertainty for greenhouse gas emissions estimates. Multiple publications including highly-citied 2002 Gurney et al., Nature paper

  • 2009-2013

    Contributing to REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECCAP) project with co-authorship of 4 papers.

We have publications by Dr Rachel Law