Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick

Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is a climate scientist at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University (ANU), where she serves as Deputy Director. Her research focuses on global and Australian heatwave trends and the attribution of these phenomena to anthropogenic climate change.

• PhD in Climate Science from the University of New South Wales (2010)

Research interests include:

• Heatwave detection and trend analysis
• Climate change attribution frameworks
• Health impacts of extreme temperatures
• Global and regional climate modeling

Scientific awards include:

• Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
• Australian Research Council Future Fellowship
• Young Tall Poppy Award (2013)
• Director's Prize from ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (2014)
• Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Early Career Researcher Award (2016)
• Australian Academy of Science Dorothy Hill Medal (2021)
• Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Communications and Outreach Award (2021)
• Featured in UNSW's 20 rising stars (2016)

Her current work explores comprehensive methodologies for linking heatwave events to climate change drivers and assessing associated public health impacts. She has secured multiple ARC grants to support this research.