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Principal research scientist, CSIRO

Vanessa Haverd has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry (Oxford University, 2003), and joined the Continental Biogeochemical Cycles Team at CSIRO in 2007 as a terrestrial biosphere modeller. She has co-developed new descriptions of fundamental physical processes, including coupled transport of heat, water and stable isotopes in soil and litter, encapsulated in the SLI (Soil-Litter-Isotope) model; heat storage, and radiative transfer in plant canopies. In 2013, she published the first complete carbon budget for the Australian continent, quantifying the contribution of the Australian biosphere to the global carbon budget, using multiple observational constraints. More recently, she co-developed a novel approach ― POP ― to representing vegetation structural dynamics in Earth system modeling, introducing vegetation structure and disturbance patterns into land surface models. Vanessa contributes CABLE-POP simulations to the annual update of the Global Carbon Budget, as part of the TRENDY ensemble of global terrestrial biosphere models. Vanessa passed away in January 2021.

Experience

  • 2007–2020
    Dr, CSIRO