Submitted by auto on Wed, 22/10/2025 - 00:00
Professor Emily Shuckburgh has been appointed as the new Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Emily Shuckburgh, Professor of Environmental Data Science here – and Director of Cambridge Zero, Cambridge University's major climate change initiative – will join DESNZ in November.
The role of Chief Scientific Adviser is to deliver independent and impartial science and engineering advice to UK ministers and policymakers.
"It's a great honour to join the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as Chief Scientific Adviser at a time when scientific evidence is so crucial to informing the UK’s response to the twin challenges of climate change and energy security," Emily said.
"I warmly congratulate Professor Shuckburgh," University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice said. "Her appointment as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero recognises not only her outstanding academic leadership in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, but also the vital role that Cambridge plays in shaping Britain's future."
Emily was awarded a CBE in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours for the Public Communication of Climate Science and was appointed, alongside two other Cambridge academics, to the DESNZ Science and Technology Advisory Council in July.
She has acted as an adviser on climate to the UK Government in various capacities, including as a Friend of COP26. Before founding Cambridge Zero in 2019, Emily worked for more than a decade at the British Antarctic Survey where her work included leading a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate.
Emily was awarded an OBE in 2016 and is co-author with HM King Charles III and British environmentalist Tony Juniper of A Ladybird Book on Climate Change. She is a mathematician and climate scientist, a Fellow of Darwin College and an alumna of Trinity College, Cambridge.
She is President-elect of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute.
As well as being Professor of Environmental Data Science in this Department, Emily is also Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS), co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR) and the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).
