Professor Emily Shuckburgh
Biography
Professor Emily Shuckburgh is the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Emily is a mathematician and climate scientist, a Fellow of Darwin College and alumna of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is President-elect of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute.
At the University of Cambridge she was Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration and of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).
She 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. Prior to that she undertook research at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and at MIT. She has also acted as an adviser on climate to the government in various capacities, including as a Friend of COP26.
She was awarded an OBE in 2016 and a CBE in 2025.
DESNZ Chief Scientific Adviser
The DESNZ Chief Scientific Adviser is responsible for:
- providing independent advice and challenge to the department to ensure DESNZ policies and contributions to wider government issues are robust, evidence-based and underpinned by the best science and engineering advice available
- maintaining strong links to academia and external experts, and working closely with other departmental CSAs to maximise the collective expertise of the cross-government CSA network in identifying and resolving cross-departmental problems
- acting as departmental head of the Government Science and Engineering Profession, helping to provide access to the necessary tools and learning to support scientists and engineers in their work and career development in government