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UNRISK student Celine Tchaghlassian at Chapel Allerton Primary School, Leeds

UNRISK PhD student Celine and James Mckay, UNRISK CDT manager, visited Chapel Allerton Primary School in Leeds for their annual Science Careers Fair, 12 March 2026. The idea is that the children find out about careers in science from various organisations including civil engineers, dentists, pharmaceutical companies, veterinary practices, and University researchers.

James has taken part in this event for several years, liaising with the school to enable CDT students to get a taste of going into schools to do outreach. The school children have also taken part in a Royal Academy of Engineering-funded project led by James educating children about the transition to a zero carbon future.

On the day, each group of 3-4 children spend about five minutes at each stall. On the UNRISK stall the children learned about climate change risks – where are the biggest risks to people? (they had to place a sticker on our inflatable globe). Celine showed them how to do a bit of coding to change map visualisations, and then they played a ‘Jenga’ game, with a group of houses sitting on top, representing a coastal scenario where cliffs are being undermined by sea level rise and more frequent storms. The children had to remove the Jenga blocks and estimate the risks of the houses collapsing – understanding about how climate risks are communicated.

UNRISK student Conor Lamb has taken up a fellowship with the Royal Meteorological Society, facilitating engagement between the insurance industry and weather and climate professionals.

Conor is the Science Engagement Fellow for Insurance. Within this role he leads the engagement activities of the society within the insurance industry, including running the society’s special interest group. This group directs subsequent activities, such as running webinars, publishing explainers on the use of weather and climate science in the industry and organising in-person events.

Conor’s PhD project is entitled “Combining models and uncertainties to support flood risk assessment and mitigation strategies”, with partner Flood Re.

We have now completed our recruitment for October 2025. This process involved over 300 applications and more than 50 interviews.

14 outstanding students will be joining UNRISK this year, of which 4 are international.

6 students – Leeds

5 students – UCL

3 students – Exeter

The projects selected are below. View the student profiles at: https://unrisk-cdt.ac.uk/about/current-unrisk-projects/

Physics-informed Machine Learning for decision making related to future extreme weather events

Novel statistical AI approaches for modelling and evaluating extreme windstorm risk

Advanced Uncertainty Quantification for decision support: Balancing risks and preferences for policy decisions

Protecting UK infrastructure from landslides triggered by climate extremes

Predicting biodiversity loss in mountain rivers due to glacier retreat

Quantifying the role of land cover in ‘slowing the flow’ for flood risk reduction in a changing climate

The influence of physical process representations on regional and global-scale climate model output

Using new high-resolution ensembles to quantify uncertainty in projections of African climate processes

Reducing uncertainty in the effect of clouds on climate change

End-to-end Machine Learning quantification of hydrological uncertainties: from climate to flood risk management

Leveraging Machine Learning algorithms for improved Arctic sea-ice prediction using the Met Office suite of models

Inclusive storylines for sustainable governance of urban adaptation to uncertainties in future heat extremes

Reducing uncertainty in climate risk perception to enhance resilience: A data science approach using the World Risk Poll

Combining models and uncertainties to support flood risk assessment and mitigation strategies

James Mckay is the new centre manager for UNRISK, starting March 2025. James has over 15 years of experience managing 3 EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training (Low Carbon Technologies EP/G036608/1, Bioenergy EP/L014912/1 and Water-WISER EP/S022066/1), as well as an EU Marie Curie Training Network.

James is also an award-winning artist and science communicator. He has illustrated both scientific papers and popular books about ancient life, including Dinosaurs of the British Isles (with Dean Lomax); Trilobites, Dinosaurs and Mammoths (Palaeontological Association); and most recently Yorkshire’s Amazing Dinosaur Coast, with Roger Osborne. His art depicting a Mesozoic forest from Antarctica featured on the cover of the journal Nature. 

Described by author Rob Hopkins as ‘the man who draws the future’, James uses art to inspire climate action. His visions of a positive future where people adapt to and mitigate climate change have been informed by research projects within the CDTs. He has led collaborative public engagement projects including Dreams of a Low Carbon Future. His work has been featured on BBC radio, and was shortlisted for both the NCCPE Engage Awards (2014); and the IIASA international prize for visioning positive futures (2022).