BAMOS Dec 2020
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New AMOS award : the Penny Whetton Memorial Lecture
Dr Penny Whetton ( right ).
Dr Penny Whetton ( 1958 – 2019 ) was one of Australia ' s leading climate scientists and a role model for gender diversity .
In honour of Penny ' s contributions throughout her long and distinguished career AMOS created a new award , the Penny Whetton Memorial Lecture .
Starting this year , the program committee for the AMOS Annual Conference will select a mid-career researcher ( 5 – 10 years from their highest degree ) to give the Penny Whetton Memorial Lecture on any topic of relevance to the AMOS community .
Penny had a distinguished 25-year career at CSIRO as an international leader in the science of regional climate change projections .
She was a Group Leader and Program Leader for much of her career and managed many large collaborative projects with colleagues at both the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology .
She was also a talented and creative landscape painter , photographer and furniture maker .
Penny had a prodigious interest in and knowledge of history and the natural world .
She affirmed her gender in 2003 and was a champion of the transgender community .
Penny ' s work was recognised internationally — she was a Lead Author in three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Assessment Reports . As a Lead Author in the IPCC Fourth
Assessment , Penny received a certificate of appreciation for her role when the IPCC shared in the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC and Al Gore .
The CSIRO Climate Impacts Group that she led was awarded the 2003 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research .
Penny led the development of national climate change projections for Australia in 1992 , 1996 , 2001 , 2007 and 2015 . The 2015 projections remain the most comprehensive ever developed for Australia . These are widely used by the private sector , governments and non-government organisations as one of Penny ’ s proudest achievements .
Penny ’ s research contributions initially focused on climate variability and circulation variations associated with El Niño and links to rainfall and streamflow variations in Australia and regions around the Pacific rim , including China and the US , as well as effects on flow in the Nile .
After moving to CSIRO , her research focused more on climate change projections and impacts .
In 2014 , Penny became an Honorary Research Fellow at CSIRO and the University of Melbourne , where she continued to be involved in climate research , advisory panels and consulting work .
In 2017 , Penny was appointed by the Andrews Government in Victoria as a member of an expert independent panel to guide how Victoria can most effectively reduce its emissions .