Fenner School Higher Degree Research Convener

Climatology, applied climatology, Greenhouse science, climate variability and change
Phone: +61 (0)2 6125 4921
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: janette.lindesay@anu.edu.au

Janette obtained her Honours degree in Geography, Postgraduate Teaching Diploma and Doctorate in statistical and dynamical climatology from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She came to ANU in 1993, where she continues to work in atmospheric science and climatology, and was Education Manager in the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting.

Professional Activities

My principal research interests are in climatic variability during the period of instrumental record, and investigating climate change impacts and vulnerability. My current research focusses on low-frequency fluctuations in Australian rainfall in the context of the El Niño Southern Oscillation and other large-scale climate system influences, including the potential for deterministic and dynamical seasonal forecasting. My climate vulnerability research focuses on the climatological aspects of bushfires in Australia, and temperature and rainfall trends and extremes. I also contribute to informing the policy debate on drought.

In my undergraduate and postgraduate teaching I aim to develop students' understanding of atmospheric processes, weather and climate, and the role of climatic variability and change in Earth system processes and human affairs.

I chair the Atmosphere Reference Group for the ACT Region State of the Environment Report, and have been President of the Canberra branch of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. I am a member of three professional meteorological societies, and am on the editorial boards of two international journals.

Academic Highlights

• Professional leave in the Hadley Centre for Climate Change at the UK Met Office, working on an integrated statistical and dynamical forecasting method for European winter climate.
• Co-convener of the ANU Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Initiative.
• 2007 winner of a Dean of the College of Science Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Selected Publications

Lindesay, J.A. 2004. Climate and drought in the subtropics: the Australian example, in From Disaster Response to Risk Management: Australia's National Drought Policy, Botteril, L.C. and Wilhite, D.A. (eds), Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 15-36.

Lindesay, J.A. 2003. Fire and climate in Australia, in Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues, Cary, G., Lindenmayer, D. and Dovers, S. (eds), CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 32-40.

Reason, C.J.C., Allan, R.J., Lindesay, J.A. and Ansell, T.J. 2000. ENSO and climatic signals across the Indian Ocean Basin in the global context: Part I, Interannual composite patterns, International Journal of Climatology, 20: 1285-1327.

Hobbs, J.E., Lindesay, J.A. and Bridgman, H.A. (eds). 1998. Climates of the Southern Continents: Present, Past and Future, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 297 pp.

Allan, R.J., Lindesay, J.A. and Parker, D.E. 1996. El Niño Southern Oscillation and Climatic Variability, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 405pp.