Biography
In May 2006, Joëlle was awarded her PhD in climatology. She is currently based in Melbourne undertaking a Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University to improve her skills as a science communicator.
Since 2002 she has received ten prestigious science awards and scholarships, culminating in my selection as one of three national finalists for the 2007 Eureka Prize for Young Leaders in Environmental Issues and Climate Change – the newest division in Australia’s premier science award scheme
In April 2007, she was awarded a scholarship with Australia’s Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, which includes the 2007 Australian of the year Professor Tim Flannery. Their aim is to train physical and social scientists to help bridge the gap between public policy and science.
Joëlle graduated from the University of NSW, Sydney Australia, in 2000 with a degree in Environmental Science. She majored in Physical Geography completing with a first class honours degree in reconstructing climate history (palaeoclimatology).
During her undergraduate studies, she taught a range of undergraduate subjects including Environmental Systems and Analysis, Environmental Change, Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Science.
In 2002, she began an Australian Postgraduate Award funded PhD investigating the long-term history of El Niño using high-resolution palaeoarchives (tree-rings, corals, ice-cores and historical documentary records).
The multi-disciplinary research Joëlle conducted represented the first Australian effort to reconstruct El Niño-Southern Oscillation (or ENSO) records using widespread climatic data outside of high profile (highly funded) efforts of researchers from the USA and Europe (e.g. Mann et al. 1998; Stahle et al. 1998; Moberg et al. 2005; Osborn and Briffa, 2006).
Since January 2006, her development of a coupled atmosphere-ocean ENSO index has also been incorporated into the ENSO forecast in Western Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Food’s Climate Risks and Opportunities Project.
To date, she has received data requests from 16 nations including Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Cuba, New Caledonia, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Tunisia, Iran, the USA, Switzerland, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, India and Japan.
During 2003 & 2004, she was based at the Tree-ring Laboratory at the University of Auckland where she worked in remnant tracts of native New Zealand Kauri (Agathis australis) - shown in the photo below. The species is considered to be the biological cousin of Australia’s rare Wollemi Pine found in the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Her work involved extensive community consultation with the New Zealand Department of Conservation, local indigenous Māori groups (Iwi) and non-governmental environmental representatives. She contributed 500 years of data sampled from living trees to allow the reconstruction of climate variability for northern New Zealand, a data sparse region of the Southern Hemsiphere.
Spanning 3,722 years, the Kauri record is now the longest (continuous) tree-ring in Southern Hemisphere, and the longest El Niño-sensitive tree-ring record in the world. The record took 25 years to develop by fewer than 10 people (in contrast to large budget US teams). For more detail take a listen to this podcast from New Zealand’s Radio National.
As Joëlle is the only Australian in the Southern Hemisphere undertaking large-scale historical ENSO research, she has been encouraged by consistent funding success at both national and international levels.The significance of her research resulted in Joëlle being awarded ten prestigious travel awards to present her work at international global change conferences since 2004.
Her financial supporters have included the:
- World Climate Research Program (WCRP)
- European Geophysical Union (EUG)
- International Research Centre on El Niño (CIFFEN)
- Past Global Changes (PAGES)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CMA)
- Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN)
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology
- Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START)
- Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA)
- International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA)
- Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists
In April 2008 she was invited by NOAA/MEDIAS France workshop on Reconciling ENSO chronologies for the Past 500 Years, Moorea, Tahiti.
Most recently she joined David Karoly’s climate group at the University of Melbourne to work on developing reconstructions of Australia’s long-term rainfall and temperature histories.
Aside from her scientific pursuits, Joëlle is a writer, landscape photographer, mountain biker and percussionist. She is an avid world traveller has who has visited 22 countries.