Lesley Ann Hughes is an Australian academic and climate scientist. Hughes is Distinguished Professor of Biology and Pro Vice-Chancellor at Macquarie University. She is also Director, Biodiversity Node, at the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage Climate Adaptation Research Hub and a Councillor at the independent Climate Council. From 2011 to 2013, she was a Commissioner of the Australian Government’s Climate Commission. Hughes was one of five Australian Lead Authors who worked on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth & Fifth Assessment Reports in 2007. She works at the Centre for Smart Green Cities. Upon accepting her Leadership award in 2019, Hughes spoke on having hope and optimism in the face of climate change. Reasons included "Money, technology, the law, governments, people power, and kids'. Her full speech can be found at the Australian Museum blog website.
Career
Hughes’ research has mainly focused on the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems. She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science before completing a PhD at Macquarie University in 1990. Hughes’ previous roles include Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University ; Chair of the Tasmanian Climate Action Council ; Co-director of the Climate Futures Research Centre at Macquarie University and Co-convenor of the Terrestrial Biodiversity Adaptation Research Network for National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
Hughes has a history of advocating for Women in Science, giving talks and participating in Women in Science and Women in Climate Science events,, in addition to working on the Science and Gender Equity Athena Swan program at her university. She is also renowned for standing up to politicians and their scepticism against scientific evidence.
Published works
Book Chapters
Hughes L 10 things to do about climate change. In: Ten Commitments Revisited: Securing Australia’s Environment., pp217-226. Second Edition. CSIRO Publishing, Canberra.
Reisinger A, Kitching R, Chiew F, Hughes L, Newton P, Schuster S, Tait A, Whetton P. Chapter 25: Australasia. In: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, Working Group II, Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability. IPCC, Geneva
Hughes has worked extensively on communicating the science of climate change around Australia. In her acceptance speech for the 2019 Australian Museum Research Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, she listed "six reasons for hope in the face of climate change". Number 6 was 'Kids', and the school strike for climate started by Greta Thunberg: Her work has been published in The Monthly, describing the balance between the depression of climate change, while trying to maintain optimism, in an article titled "When planetary catastrophe is your day job". Hughes has also published on how individual cities are leading climate policy, in the absence of national leadership in climate change. She has also contributed an article to The Conversation about the impacts of climate change on human health, in 2011, citing that this is the most important decade to act to prevent significant impacts to human health: In June 2019 she spoke at a "women in science" event at the Sydney Mechanics School of Art on climate change.
Awards
In 2019 she was described as a "pioneering ecologist' and a leading figure in international climate change research, for her leadership in climate change and ecological research.
In 2014, Hughes was awarded the "Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research".
