Meredith Hess

Profile

I am a postgraduate researcher pursuing my PhD at the University of Leeds as part of the UNRISK Centre for Doctoral Training’s second cohort. I sit within both the Leeds University Business School (Analytics, Technology, and Operations Department) and the Sustainability Research Institute in the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, where my research focuses on expert judgement and communication of uncertainty in the production of climate information. Working with JBA Group, my research explores how uncertainty can most effectively be communicated to decisionmakers as climate data is translated to inform the development of climate information services.

Over the arc of my career, I have worked across the research, humanitarian, and development sectors. I have held positions and consultancies with Habitat for Humanity International, the World Resources Institute, Prosper Global (formerly Mercy Corps), and Project Dandelion. My areas of expertise are water security, climate change adaptation, product development, climate information uptake and utilization, and partnership/strategic development.

I hold a BA in Environmental Studies from Davidson College (North Carolina, USA) and an MSc with Distinction in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK). My dissertation research while at Oxford represented the first known attempt to incorporate temporally and spatially granular earth observation data on surface water area with statistical modelling for crop yields.

Research interests

I am interested in research which explores how, why, and under what conditions climate information services inform changes in behavior, collective action, and policy frameworks, as well as the role of uncertainty across the climate information services supply chain. Given the nature of my background as a development practitioner and my PhD topic, my research interests include:

• Climate information services
• Science-policy interface
• Climate adaptation
• Water security
• Humanitarian and development sectors
• Disaster risk financing
• Parametric insurance

Qualifications

• MSc in Environmental Change and Management (Distinction), University of Oxford
• BA in Environmental Studies, Davidson College

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Decision Research
• Sustainability