Helen A. Cleugh FTSE is a New Zealand atmospheric scientist.[1] She is currently the Chief Research Scientist in Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (Oceans and Atmosphere) where she leads the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub.[2]
Cleugh's research focuses on observing and predicting atmospheric, climate and marine systems and determining how they interact with human activities.[2]
Cleugh grew up on a farm in Central Otago in New Zealand, and earned a BSc with Honours at the University of Otago in 1981.[3][4] Cleugh received her doctorate in Geography in 1987 from the University of British Columbia, and was a lecturer at Macquarie University School of Earth Sciences in Sydney from 1987 to 1994.[5] Cleugh has been a Scientist with the CSIRO since 1994[6] where she has been working Earth systems research capabilities and climate modeling.[7]
Her research concentration is on interactions between climate and land surfaces, with a focus on the amount of carbon dioxide is taken up by ecosystems.[8]
Cleugh was the Deputy Director of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR) from 2007 to 2009.[7] She then went on to lead CMAR Climate and Atmosphere Theme where in collaboration with CAWCR, her team developed a long-term observation study on aerosols to predict the future trends of Australia's rainfall.[6] Speaking of the work she leads at CSIRO in developing climate models, in 2014 she said:
Because we’ve developed it here in Australia, it does as good as job as we can of representing factors that are important for Australia such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation-type phenomena, as well as representing Australian ecosystems and the oceanic systems that are around Australia.[8]
Cleugh was an Erskine Fellow at the Geographical Department in the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2002.[9]