Joanna Haigh

Joanna Haigh
CBE FRS FInstP FRMetS
Haigh interviewed by Carbon Brief in 2019
Born
Joanna Dorothy Haigh

(1954-05-07) 7 May 1954 (age 70)
EducationHitchin Girls' School
Alma mater
Known forWork on solar variability
AwardsChree Medal (2004)
Scientific career
FieldsAtmospheric physics[1]
Institutions
ThesisExperiments with a two-dimensional model of the general circulation (1980)
Doctoral advisorC.D. Walshaw[3]
Notable studentsAlice Larkin[4]
Joanna Haigh's voice
from the BBC programme The Life Scientific, 27 August 2013.[6]
Websitewww.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.haigh Edit this at Wikidata

Joanna Dorothy Haigh CBE FRS FInstP FRMetS (born 7 May 1954)[5] is a British physicist and academic.[1][7][8] Before her retirement in 2019[9] she was Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London, and co-director of the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and Environment. She served as head of the department of physics at Imperial College London.[when?] She is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), and a served as president of the Royal Meteorological Society.[when?]

Early life and education

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Haigh was born in 1954.[5] She was educated at Hitchin Girls' School, then an all-girls grammar school in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. She showed an early interest in the weather, building her own weather station in her back garden as a teenager.[9] She studied physics at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree; as per tradition, this was later promoted to a Master of Arts (Oxon) degree. This was followed by a Master of Science (MSc) degree in meteorology at Imperial College London. She returned to Oxford to complete a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in atmospheric physics under the supervision of C.D. Walshaw. This was awarded in 1980 for her doctoral thesis on Experiments with a two-dimensional model of the general circulation.[3]

Career and research

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Haigh is Emeritus Professor of atmospheric physics at Imperial College London. Since 2014, she has served as co-director of the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and Environment.[10] She has served as head of the department of physics at Imperial College from 2009 to 2014.[11]

Haigh is known for her work on solar variability, and also works on radiative transfer, stratosphere-troposphere coupling and climate modelling.[12][13][14][15][16] She has served as editor of the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences and a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).[17]

Views on climate change

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Haigh conforms to the mainstream scientific view, that anthropogenic carbon emissions lead to increased greenhouse warming. She stated in June 2016 that if current levels of carbon dioxide emissions continued unabated, they would lead to a 5 °C increase over pre-industrial climate by the end of the next century, and that achieving a zero temperature rise would require a complete cessation of carbon emissions.[18] She also stated that she was optimistic about the future, following the COP21 conference,[18] but later, when Donald Trump became president of the United States, she said:

"If Trump does what he said he'd do, and others follow suit, my gut feeling is that I'm scared. Very scared."[19]

Awards and honours

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In the 2013 New Year Honours, Haigh was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to physics".[20][21] Haigh served as president of the Royal Meteorological Society from 2012 to 2014; she is now[when?] a vice-president.[2][6] In 2013, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). Her nomination read:[22]

Distinguished for her scientific leadership in the area of solar influences on the middle atmosphere and for her modelling of how these effects can modulate tropospheric circulations and so propagate to Earth's surface. Her expertise in modelling atmospheric radiative transfer allowed the development of computationally fast but accurate radiative transfer schemes some of which are now in use by climate modelling groups across the world. By proposing and demonstrating an entirely novel mechanism for solar influence on climate she has allowed proper allowance to be made for the small and subtle, yet revealing effects.

In 2004 she received the Charles Chree Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics and in 2010 the Royal Meteorological Society Adrian Gill prize for her work on solar variability and its effects on climate.[23]

In November 2020 she was included in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power list 2020.[24] She was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific in 2013.[6]

Haigh is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP).[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Joanna Haigh publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ a b c "President and Council – Royal Meteorological Society". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  3. ^ a b Haigh, Joanna Dorothy (1980). Experiments with a two-dimensional model of the general circulation. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 298511188. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.256537. Free access icon
  4. ^ Larkin, Alice (2000). Investigation into the effects of solar variability on climate using atmospheric models of the troposphere and stratosphere (PhD thesis). Imperial College London. OCLC 1006239909. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.310070.
  5. ^ a b c d Anon (2014). "Haigh, Prof. Joanna Dorothy". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U258354. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ a b c "Joanna Haigh". The Life Scientific. 27 August 2013. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  7. ^ Global warming is caused by human activity Archived 5 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine – interview for the Open University
  8. ^ The Carbon Brief Interview: Prof Joanna Haigh (29 April 2019)
  9. ^ a b Dunning, Hayley (3 May 2019). "Climate champion Jo Haigh retires after 35 years at Imperial | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Home – Professor Joanna D. Haigh". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  11. ^ "Past Heads of Department". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  12. ^ Haigh, J. D.; Roscoe, H. K. (2009). "The Final Warming Date of the Antarctic Polar Vortex and Influences on its Interannual Variability". Journal of Climate. 22 (22): 5809. Bibcode:2009JCli...22.5809H. doi:10.1175/2009JCLI2865.1. S2CID 128778821.
  13. ^ Haigh, J. D.; Blackburn, M. (2006). "Solar Influences on Dynamical Coupling Between the Stratosphere and Troposphere" (PDF). Space Science Reviews. 125 (1–4): 331. Bibcode:2006SSRv..125..331H. doi:10.1007/s11214-006-9067-0. S2CID 32825899.
  14. ^ Haigh, J. D. (2003). "The effects of solar variability on the Earth's climate". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 361 (1802): 95–111. Bibcode:2003RSPTA.361...95H. doi:10.1098/rsta.2002.1111. S2CID 53007804.
  15. ^ Haigh, J. D. (2001). "CLIMATE: Climate Variability and the Influence of the Sun". Science. 294 (5549): 2109–2111. doi:10.1126/science.1067013. PMID 11739941. S2CID 955158.
  16. ^ Haigh, J. D.; Pyle, J. A. (1979). "A two-dimensional calculation including atmospheric carbon dioxide and stratospheric ozone". Nature. 279 (5710): 222. Bibcode:1979Natur.279..222H. doi:10.1038/279222a0. S2CID 4244566.
  17. ^ "IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change". ipcc.ch.
  18. ^ a b "Atmospheric physicist Joanna Haigh takes on climate change at the IOP". Institute of Physics. 9 June 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  19. ^ Harrabin, Roger (21 January 2017). "World v Trump on global climate deal?". BBC News. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  20. ^ "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 8.
  21. ^ "New Year Honours List 2013 – General List" (PDF). Cabinet Office. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  22. ^ "- Royal Society". royalsociety.org.
  23. ^ "Joanna Dorothy Haigh – Royal Meteorological Society". Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  24. ^ "Woman's Hour Power List 2020: The List". BBC Radio4. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
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