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Scott Power

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Director, Centre for Applied Climate Sciences, University of Southern Queensland

Professor Scott B. Power Dip. Ed. is the Director of the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences at USQ, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, an associate investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, and a climate science advisor to the DFAT-funded Australia Pacific Climate Partnership. Scott also manages a consultancy called Climate Services International. Scott was previously a Senior Principal Research Scientist and an International Development Officer in the Bureau of Meteorology, and an author of the IPCC WGI report and the IPCC WGI-III Synthesis Report that informed the Paris Agreement. Scott has a passion for helping students, industry, government agencies and the general public better understand and use climate science, and for international development. He has published extensively in the international scientific literature on, e.g., climate change and climate variability, Pacific and Australian climate, El Niño, climate variability and predictability, historical changes in severe weather, and applied climate science. He is the former head of climate research and operational climate monitoring and prediction services in the Bureau, the former International Development Manager in the Bureau, the former acting head of Australia’s National Climate Centre, and the climate science advisor to the Australian Climate Change Authority. He previously coordinated the Bureau's participation in the Australian Climate Change Science Program, he led the development of a project to enhance climate prediction services in numerous Pacific Island countries, and he co-led a program on Pacific climate change science that assisted 14 vulnerable countries in the Pacific and Timor-Leste adapt to climate change and to establish climate change services. More recently he was the Bureau lead on the development of the National Environmental Science Program's Earth System and Climate Change Hub, and he led the development of, and now manages, a DFAT-funded project to increase community benefits from Early Warning Systems.

Experience

  • 2020–present
    Adjunct professor, Monash University
  • 2016–2018
    International Development Manager, Bureau of Meterology
  • 2016–2017
    Head of Climate Research, Bureau of Meteorology

Education

  • 1991 
    McGill University, Canada, Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 1990 
    UNSW, PhD
  • 1985 
    Monash University, BSc (Hons, first class)
  • 1983 
    Monash University, Diploma in Education
  • 1981 
    Monash University, BSc

Publications

  • 2020
    The Impact of Anthropogenic Forcing and Natural Processes on Past, Present, and Future Rainfall over Victoria, Australia, Journal of Climate
  • 2020
    The impact of global warming and the El Niño-Southern, Climate Dynamics
  • 2019
    El Niño–Southern Oscillation complexity, Nature
  • 2019
    Towards operational predictions of the near-term climate, Nature Climate Change
  • 2019
    Setting and smashing extreme temperature records over the coming century, Nature Climate Change
  • 2018
    El Niño–Southern Oscillation and Associated Climatic Conditions around the World during the Latter Half of the Twenty-First Century, Journal of Climate
  • 2018
    What can decadal variability tell us about climate feedbacks and sensitivity?, Climate Dynamics
  • 2017
    Humans have already increased the risk of major disruptions to Pacific rainfall, Nature Communications
  • 2016
    The frequency of major flooding in coastal southeast Australia has significantly increased since the late 19th century, J Southern Hemisphere Earth System Science
  • 2016
    Variability in Severe Coastal Flooding, Associated Storms, and Death Tolls in Southeastern Australia since the Mid–19th Century, JAMC
  • 2016
    Unambiguous warming in the western tropical Pacific primarily caused by anthropogenic forcing, International Journal of Climatology
  • 2015
    Modelled rainfall response to strong El Niño sea surface temperature anomalies in the Tropical Pacific, Journal of Climate
  • 2015
    Apparent limitations in the ability of CMIP5 climate models to simulate recent multi-decadal change in surface temperature: implications for global temperature projections, Climate Dynamics
  • 2015
    Inability of CMIP5 models to simulate recent strengthening of the Walker Circulation: Implications for projections, Journal of Climate
  • 2015
    Observed and projected changes in surface climate of tropical Pacific Islands, SPC (Pacific Community)
  • 2015
    A tripole index for the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, Climate Dynamics
  • 2014
    The varied impacts of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on Pacific island climates, Journal of Climate
  • 2014
    Expulsion from History, Nature
  • 2014
    Nonlinear precipitation response to El Niño and global warming in the Indo-Pacific, Climate Dynamics
  • 2014
    Climate Change 2014: IPCC WG I-III Synthesis Report, IPCC
  • 2013
    Chapter 11: Near-term Climate Change: Projections and Predictability, AR5 IPCC Report
  • 2013
    Robust 21st-century projections of El Nino and related precipitation variability, Nature
  • 2012
    More extreme swings of the South Pacific convergence zone due to greenhouse warming, Nature
  • 2012
    Consensus on 21st C rainfall projections in climate models more widespread than previously thought, Journal of Climate
  • 2011
    Climate Change in the Pacific: Scientific Assessment and New Research, Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO
  • 2011
    Variability and decline in the number of severe tropical cyclones making land-fall over eastern Australia since the late nineteenth century, Climate Dynamics
  • 2011
    What caused the observed twentieth century weakening of the Walker Circulation?, Journal of Climate
  • 2010
    The impact of global warming on the tropical Pacific Ocean and El Niño, Nature Geoscience

Professional Memberships

  • American Meteorological Society
  • American Geophysical Union
  • Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

Research Areas

  • Climate Change Processes (040104)

Honours

Innovation and Research Award, Pacific Meteorological Council, 2019; Honorary Professor, University of Queensland, 2016-2019; Bureau Excellence Award 2016.