Luke Harrington

Dr Luke Harrington is a Senior Lecturer in Climate Change at the University of Waikato and leads the Climate Extremes and Societal Impacts (CLESI) research group. His team uses state-of-the-art climate models to understand how climate change influences observed extreme weather events around the world, with a focus on why some communities experience more significant changes than others. Work led by Harrington was the first to quantify the attributable role of climate change for the 2012/13 NZ drought, the extreme rainfall associated with Cyclone Gabrielle, as well as several studies focusing on extreme heat in NZ and globally.

In its 2022 edition, Harrington was the first New Zealander to feature in the ‘Healthcare and Science’ section of Forbes 30 under 30 Asia. He was a lead author on a 2021 OECD report examining losses and damages from climate change. He was also the 2023 recipient of the New Zealand Meteorological Society's Kidson Medal.