Penelope Whetton (5 January 1958 – 11 September 2019) was a climatologist and an expert in regional climate change projections due to global warming and in the impacts of those changes. Her primary scientific focus was Australia.[1]
Early life
Whetton was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on 5 January 1958. She held a Bachelor of Science (Honours), majoring in physics, and an honours year in meteorology, from the University of Melbourne. She received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the same university in 1986.[2]
In 1989, she joined the Atmospheric Research division of CSIRO (later becoming CMAR CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research). Whetton became a research leader in 1999 and a research program leader in 2009.[3] Whetton was a Lead Author on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Assessment Reports of the UNIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).[4] The Fourth Assessment Report of which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.[5]
Whetton was an invited speaker at various climate change conferences such as the Aspen Global Change Institute,[6] Four Degrees Or More? Australia in a Hot World[7] at the University of Melbourne in 2011, and the Greenhouse 2011: The Science of Climate Change conference.[8]
Whetton published numerous scientific journal articles on climate change as well as a contribution to more popular publications.[9]
