Eleanor O’Rourke has been hired as the Director of the new WCRP International Project Office for CORDEX (IPOC), kindly hosted by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in Sweden. The WCRP JPS staff in Geneva is looking forward to further developing CORDEX with her and the SMHI team.
Eleanor O’Rourke completed a BSc (Hons) in Meteorology and Oceanography at the University of East Anglia, UK. She then spent a year working in scientific conference development and management before undertaking a PhD at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (now National Oceanography Centre) in Liverpool, UK. Her thesis focused on ‘The effect of topography on thermohaline adjustment’ and was funded through the NERC RAPID programme. During her time as a PhD student, Eleanor was also involved in a number of outreach and education activities in the local area gaining beneficial experience in communicating science to the public. Further she undertook a three month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office for Science & Technology at the Westminster Parliament in London where she provided UK parliamentarians with concise and easily understood information regarding the impact of climate change on renewable energy potential.
After completing her PhD, Eleanor then spent three years working at a scientific consultancy in Glasgow, UK gaining wide ranging experience of European Framework Programme project management, stakeholder engagement and proposal preparation. In 2012 she moved to the Rossby Centre at SMHI, Sweden to project manage the FP7 EMBRACE project and further took a number of roles in communication and dissemination for the Rossby Centre and other FP7 projects, proposal preparation, and group coordination. Eleanor also quickly became involved in CORDEX as a member of the Communications and Early Career Scientist group and later as part of the CORDEX 2013 conference organising team.
Eleanor is tremendously excited about taking on the role of Director of the International Project Office for CORDEX and working with the whole CORDEX community and many other stakeholders.