Dr Georgy Falster is a climate scientist who studies how Earth’s rainfall patterns are changing because of climate change, with a particular focus on Australian droughts. Droughts can severely impact the Australian economy and society, so we need to know the range of drought lengths and severities to be prepared for in the future.
Dr Falster takes a holistic approach to quantifying Australia’s future drought risk—accounting for natural rainfall variability as well as human-caused climate change. She combines information from weather observations, climate model simulations, and natural archives of past climate variability such as tree rings and ice cores—known as ‘palaeoclimate proxies’. Together, these sources of information allow her to make holistic assessments of Australian climate variability and how it is changing.