Dr. Joanna Haigh is a distinguished atmospheric physicist renowned for her pioneering work on solar-climate interactions. She served as Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London and was Co-Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and Environment from 2014 until her retirement in 2019. Prior to these leadership roles, she was Head of the Department of Physics at Imperial College for five years following a distinguished research career spanning several decades. Her academic journey established her as one of the United Kingdom's foremost climate scientists with expertise bridging atmospheric physics and climatology.
Dr. Haigh's groundbreaking research has centered on unraveling the influence of solar energy variations on Earth's climate, distinguishing between natural solar fluctuations and anthropogenic climate change. Using satellite data and sophisticated modeling techniques, she developed computationally efficient yet precise atmospheric models that transformed scientists' ability to predict climate behavior. Her methods for analyzing solar irradiance variability and its atmospheric effects are now employed by researchers worldwide, incorporating intricate details of climate processes previously unaccounted for. This work has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of how solar radiation in various wavelengths affects different layers of the atmosphere, particularly her investigations of ultraviolet radiation's impact on stratospheric ozone. The significance of her contributions extends to improving the accuracy of climate projections by properly accounting for solar influences alongside greenhouse gas effects.
Beyond her research, Dr. Haigh has profoundly shaped the climate science community through leadership positions including her presidency of the Royal Meteorological Society from 2012 to 2014. She has served as editor for prestigious journals including the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society and the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, setting high standards for scientific discourse in her field. As a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, she contributed to establishing the scientific consensus that informs global policy decisions on climate change. Dr. Haigh's legacy includes mentoring numerous researchers and influencing climate science education through her clear communication of complex atmospheric processes to both scientific and public audiences.
