The UNRISK Team

Prof Hayley Fowler is Professor of Climate Change Impacts and Head of the Water Engineering Group in the School of Engineering at University of Newcastle. Her research focuses on improved physical understanding of changing precipitation extremes and providing better projections for climate adaptation. 

Hayley chairs the UNRISK Steering Committee.

Dr Matthew Hort OBE is a Met Office Principal Fellow, leads the Met Office Research and Innovation theme on Hazard to Decision Making and is Chair of the Natural Hazard Partnership. Matt provides thought leadership in the area of Atmospheric Dispersion and Air Quality and the communication of science in supporting hazard preparedness and response. In this role he provides insight and input to the direction of future science and service development at the Met Office. 

Prof Robbie McDonald FRSB is an ecologist with 30 years’ experience of work at the interface between environmental science, policy and practice.  
As Chief Insights Officer and Chief Scientist at the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), Robbie directs the evidence and analysis programme of work that supports OEP’s scrutiny of government’s progress in improving the natural environment. He leads a team of analysts with diverse expertise in natural and social scientific research, environmental management, protection, consultancy and regulation.

Dr Kirsty Styles joined JBA in 2018 after working in the reinsurance industry for 10 years. She is JBA’s Climate Change Product Owner, overseeing and driving the development of JBA’s climate change products. She also leads a company-wide initiative to improve how JBA represents uncertainty in all its products. Kirsty has a PhD in Geophysics.

Dr Navjit Sagoo joined Climate X in 2023 after a decade in academia. She leads the science engagement function at Climate X, helping translate science to everyday language and encourage cross-disciplinary communication. 

Navjit has a PhD in Climate Modeling and worked across the themes of paleoclimate, aerosol-cloud interactions and climate sensitivity.