Dr Jen Purdie is a climate and energy modeller at the University of Otago. Her current project is modelling climate change impacts on the energy system out to 2050, funded by the Deep South Science challenge.
Jen’s PhD was in seasonal rainfall and river flow forecasting, after which she worked for 12 years in the energy industry, primarily looking at better optimisation of wind, water, and snow melt in energy forecasting on all time scales, and also modelling the New Zealand energy system out to 2050.
She has published on the impacts of climate on energy, written consulting reports on climate change impacts on rivers, climate change impact on probable maximum flood, and climate change impacts on wind farms. She has been an expert witness in environment court cases around access to water, and lectured at University on this and on energy topics.