Katrin Meissner (scientist)

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Katrin Meissner
NationalityGerman, Australian
Alma mater
Scientific career
FieldsOcean and climate change research
InstitutionsUniversity of New South Wales
ThesisLangfristige Variabilität der thermohalinen Zirkulation in einem gekoppelten Ozean-, Meereis-, Atmosphärenmodell (1999)

Katrin Juliane Meissner is a physical oceanographer and climate scientist known for climate models assessing the impact of abrupt climate change on terrestrial and marine biogeochemical cycling.

Education and career[edit]

Meissner grew up in Berlin, Germany, where she attended the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin.[1] Meissner completed an engineering degree at the Ecole Centrale de Lille in 1995.[1] Meissner moved to the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, France where she investigated the predictability of the West African monsoon based on ocean-atmosphere fluxes off the coast of Senegal.[1] Meissner received her Ph.D. at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research at the Universität Bremen, Germany in 1999.[2] She developed an atmosphere model and a sea ice model and coupled both to an existing ocean model to study the long-term variability of the thermohaline circulation.[3] For this work she received the Annette Barthelt Prize for outstanding research in the field of marine science in 2000.[4]

Meissner completed a postdoc at the University of Victoria, Canada, 2000-2002 and subsequently was an Assistant Professor there in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences from 2002 until 2009.[1] In 2009, she moved to the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.[1] Her relocation from a tenure-track position in Victoria was in part due to the long term issues of reduced funding for climate change science across Canada.[5] In 2010, she was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.[1] In 2020 she was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN).[6]

As of 2021, she is the Director of the Climate Change Research Centre[7] and holds an Adjunct Professor position at the University of Victoria, Canada and a courtesy position at Oregon State University.[8] She is a member of the Committee of Experts[9] for the German Excellence Strategy.

Meissner is on the steering committee for the PAGES (Past Global Changes) project[10] which coordinates and promotes climate change research. In 2015, she was one of the featured scientists in Joe Duggan's project about emotions of scientists whose work focuses on climate change.[11] This project was followed up in 2020.[12] Meissner also voiced her concerns about climate change in an episode of ABC’s Lateline in 2017[13] and in an opinion article in the Sydney Morning Herald.[14] She is an active reviewer of "Climate Feedback" for ABC's Media Watch.[15] In June 2018, she was a co-author of a paper[16] in Nature Geoscience which posited that current model-based climate projections could be greatly underestimating the rate of warming.[17]

Research[edit]

Meissner's primary area of research and scientific engagement centers on climate change. While at the University of Victoria, she coupled a dynamic vegetation model and a land surface scheme to an atmosphere-ocean-sea ice climate model[18][19] and introduced several isotopic tracers into a climate model to facilitate comparison with paleoproxies in climate archives.[20]

In her research on abrupt climate change events, Meissner has developed and coupled several components to existing Earth System Climate Models which help facilitate comparison to past climate archives and incorporate complex earth processes into the models.[21] Meissner also combines climate models with palaeoclimate records to increase understanding of the basic mechanisms of climate variability and climate change,[22] particularly in the context of marine and terrestrial biogeochemical cycles, ocean circulation, and the changing chemical environment of coral reefs.[23] The work of her and her team developed model studies on rapid climate changes in Australia.[24][25]

Selected publications[edit]

  • Eby, M.; Montenegro, A.; Archer, D.; Meissner, K.J. (2009). "Lifetime of anthropogenic climate change: Millennial time-scales of potential CO2 and surface temperature perturbations". Journal of Climate. 22 (7): 2501–2511. Bibcode:2009JCli...22.2501E. doi:10.1175/2008JCLI2554.1. S2CID 36845074.
  • Meissner, K.J.; Weaver, A.J.; Matthews, H.D.; Cox, P.M. (2003). "The role of land-surface dynamics in glacial inception: a study with the UVic Earth System Model". Climate Dynamics. 21 (7–8): 515–537. Bibcode:2003ClDy...21..515M. doi:10.1007/s00382-003-0352-2. S2CID 29381932.
  • Avis, C.A.A.; Weaver, A.J.; Meissner, K.J. (2011). "Evolution of high-latitude wetlands in response to permafrost thaw". Nature Geoscience. 4 (7): 444–448. doi:10.1038/ngeo1160.
  • Fischer, H.; Meissner, K.J.; Mix, A. C.; Abram, N.J.; Austermann, J.; Brovkin, V.; et al. (25 June 2018). "Palaeoclimate constraints on the impact of 2 °C anthropogenic warming and beyond" (PDF). Nature Geoscience. 11 (7): 474–485. Bibcode:2018NatGe..11..474F. doi:10.1038/S41561-018-0146-0. ISSN 1752-0894. Wikidata Q56658823. (erratum)
  • Meissner, K.J.; Lippmann, T.; Sen Gupta, A. (2012). "Large-scale stress factors affecting coral reefs: open ocean sea surface temperature and surface seawater aragonite saturation over the next 400 years". Coral Reefs. 31 (2): 309–319. Bibcode:2012CorRe..31..309M. doi:10.1007/s00338-011-0866-8. S2CID 16814102.

Awards and honors[edit]

  • Annette Barthelt Prize (2000)[4]
  • Fellow, Royal Society of New South Wales (2020)[6]
  • Petersen Excellence Professorship (2023)[26]

Recent media[edit]

  • Taking the Temperature of Climate Science. The Pulse. 07 April 2023[27]
  • No one wants to be right about this: climate scientists’ horror and exasperation as global predictions play out. The Guardian. 25 July 2023[28]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Katrin Meissner". Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Australian Research Council's (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science". 17 March 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Langfristige Variabilität der thermohalinen Zirkulation in einem gekoppelten Ozean-, Meereis-, Atmosphärenmodell". suche.suub.uni-bremen.de. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b http://www.annette-barthelt-stiftung.de,+http://www.annette-barthelt-stiftung.de/snippetmaster/edit/preistraeger.htm Archived 16 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Munro, Margaret (17 February 2009). "Scientists leaving Canada as climate funding dries up". Victoria Times Colonist. p. A5.
  6. ^ a b "Fellows of the Royal Society of NSW". royalsoc.org.au. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Professor Katrin Meissner | Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC)". www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Climate Science". 17 March 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Mitgliederliste Expertengremium" (PDF). 6 November 2020.
  10. ^ "SSC membership history". pastglobalchanges.org. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  11. ^ Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Sarah (23 September 2015). "How should we feel about climate change? | Inside Story". Inside Story. ISSN 1837-0497. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  12. ^ "'I'm profoundly sad, I feel guilty': scientists reveal their personal fears about the climate crisis". the Guardian. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  13. ^ Brewster, Kerry (27 June 2017), Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, retrieved 12 March 2021
  14. ^ Johnston, Emma; Meissner, Katrin (30 August 2019). "The Sydney Morning Herald". The reef report is in and ocean scientists are fearful. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Ep 42 - the Australian defends Plimer". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2 December 2019.
  16. ^ Fischer, Hubertus; Meissner, Katrin J.; Zhou, Liping (25 June 2018). "Palaeoclimate constraints on the impact of 2 °C anthropogenic warming and beyond" (PDF). Nature Geoscience. 11 (7): 474–485. Bibcode:2018NatGe..11..474F. doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0146-0. S2CID 134357605.
  17. ^ Cimons X., Marlene (19 July 2018). "The Climate Has Always Changed. Why Is This Time so Much Worse?". Nexus Media News. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  18. ^ Avis, Christopher A.; Weaver, Andrew J.; Meissner, Katrin J. (2011). "Reduction in areal extent of high-latitude wetlands in response to permafrost thaw". Nature Geoscience. 4 (7): 444–448. Bibcode:2011NatGe...4..444A. doi:10.1038/ngeo1160. ISSN 1752-0908.
  19. ^ Meissner, K. J.; Weaver, A. J.; Matthews, H. D.; Cox, P. M. (1 December 2003). "The role of land surface dynamics in glacial inception: a study with the UVic Earth System Model". Climate Dynamics. 21 (7): 515–537. Bibcode:2003ClDy...21..515M. doi:10.1007/s00382-003-0352-2. ISSN 1432-0894. S2CID 29381932.
  20. ^ Brennan, C. E.; Weaver, A. J.; Eby, M.; Meissner, K. J. (1 December 2012). "Modelling Oxygen Isotopes in the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model for Pre-industrial and Last Glacial Maximum Conditions". Atmosphere-Ocean. 50 (4): 447–465. doi:10.1080/07055900.2012.707611. ISSN 0705-5900. S2CID 129157048.
  21. ^ Alexander, Kaitlin; J. Meissner, Katrin; J. Bralower, Timothy (2015). "Sudden spreading of corrosive bottom water during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum". Nature Geoscience. 8 (6): 458–461. Bibcode:2015NatGe...8..458A. doi:10.1038/ngeo2430. ISSN 1752-0908.
  22. ^ Fischer, Hubertus; Meissner, Katrin J.; Mix, Alan C.; Abram, Nerilie J.; Austermann, Jacqueline; Brovkin, Victor; Capron, Emilie; Colombaroli, Daniele; Daniau, Anne-Laure; Dyez, Kelsey A.; Felis, Thomas (2018). "Palaeoclimate constraints on the impact of 2 °C anthropogenic warming and beyond". Nature Geoscience. 11 (7): 474–485. Bibcode:2018NatGe..11..474F. doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0146-0. hdl:1871.1/2b78fee6-99a6-4b79-b31d-ce39c1ee178a. ISSN 1752-0908. S2CID 134357605.
  23. ^ Meissner, K. J.; Lippmann, T.; Sen Gupta, A. (1 June 2012). "Large-scale stress factors affecting coral reefs: open ocean sea surface temperature and surface seawater aragonite saturation over the next 400 years". Coral Reefs. 31 (2): 309–319. Bibcode:2012CorRe..31..309M. doi:10.1007/s00338-011-0866-8. ISSN 1432-0975. S2CID 16814102.
  24. ^ Pittock, A. Barrie (2013). Climate Change: The Science, Impacts and Solutions (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 93. ISBN 9780643094840.
  25. ^ Abram, Nerilie J.; Henley, Benjamin J.; Sen Gupta, Alex; Lippmann, Tanya J. R.; Clarke, Hamish; Dowdy, Andrew J.; Sharples, Jason J.; Nolan, Rachael H.; Zhang, Tianran; Wooster, Martin J.; Wurtzel, Jennifer B. (7 January 2021). "Connections of climate change and variability to large and extreme forest fires in southeast Australia". Communications Earth & Environment. 2 (1): 8. Bibcode:2021ComEE...2....8A. doi:10.1038/s43247-020-00065-8. hdl:11343/274276. ISSN 2662-4435. S2CID 231670874.
  26. ^ "Professor Katrin Meissner awarded Petersen Excellence Professorship from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  27. ^ "Taking the Temperature of Climate Science". NPR. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  28. ^ "No one wants to be right about this: climate scientists' horror and exasperation as global predictions play out". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

External links[edit]