Hayley is a Professor of Climate Change Impacts, Head of the Water Engineering Group and Director of NU Centre of Research Excellence in Climate and Environmental Resilience, at Newcastle University. She is passionate about the need for applied research to engage with societal issues and to provide solutions, or at least the path towards solutions, in a decision-focused approach.
Her research engages with stakeholders (UK and international), regulators, and Government representatives to co-develop research that delivers bespoke tools and data needed for adaptation decision-making, as well as advising stakeholders on how best to use currently available climate information.
Hayley’s research focuses on improved physical understanding of changing precipitation extremes and providing better projections for climate adaptation. She has pioneered new downscaling techniques to bridge the gap between climate modellers and users of climate scenarios, and specialises in the analysis of the impacts of climate change and variability on hydrological and water resource systems. She has been instrumental in the analysis of climate model outputs and development of new downscaling techniques to bridge the gap between modellers and users of climate information.
Hayley was a Contributing Author to Chapter 8: Water Cycle and Chapter 11: Extremes for the IPCC 6th Assessment Report WGI, and Chapter 1 for the UK 3rd Climate Change Risk Assessment. Amongst a vast range of roles, Hayley is on the Environment Agency Expert panel for Boosting Action in Surface Water and advises government through her roles on the Strategic Advisory Board for RESAS Science and on the DESNZ Science Expert Group. She is Past President of the British Hydrological Society, and sits on both the Weather Risk Task Force for Network Rail and the Governance Board for the UK Flood Hydrology Roadmap.