Undergraduate opportunities at the University of Melbourne

The ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century explores how Australia’s weather is being reshaped by climate change. We periodically offer scholarships intended to provide undergraduate students from Australian universities with an introduction to cutting-edge climate science and weather change research.

Students should be in their second or third year and ideally interested in pursuing honours or a postgraduate degree in climate or weather change science. At the University of Melbourne, 21st Century Weather projects will run for 75 hours, to be worked flexibly over a six-week period.

To express your interest in a project listed below, please contact Senior Lecturer Dr Yi Huang via yi.huang4@unimelb.edu.au prior to Friday 22 May, 2026.

Road Accidents and the Weather

Supervisor: Kim Reid

Using recent datasets of road accidents in Victoria and NSW, the student will explore the statistics of different weather hazards and accidents to understand when and where weather related road accidents are more likely. Knowledge of statistics would be ideal.

Requirements: Experience with Python, Matlab or R is beneficial or a willingness to learn.

Start date: Flexible (early start preferred)

How does wind influence bushfire thunderstorms?

Supervisor: Bethan White, Caroline Poulsen (Bureau of Meteorology)

Predicting bushfire thunderstorms (pyroCb) is critical because they can rapidly escalate wildfires. Monitoring wind change is central to understanding pyroCb triggering, as winds influence both fire intensity and plume structure. You will analyse 70 Australian pyroCb events from the past decade, using model and satellite data to cluster events by wind conditions. You will be co-supervised by a Bureau of Meteorology scientist and spend time at the Bureau.

Requirements: Knowledge of python for data analysis is desirable.

Start date: Flexible

Comparing Rainfall Bursts in Northwest and Northeast Australia

Supervisor: Himadri Saini

This project explores differences in rainfall bursts over northwest (NW) and northeast (NE) Australia during the Australian monsoon. Using reanalysis and/or climate model datasets, the student will identify and compare the timing and drivers of burst events in both regions. The project will examine links to large-scale circulation features such as the monsoon trough and wind patterns, and how these influence rainfall patterns. The outcomes will improve understanding of regional rainfall variability and its connection to monsoon dynamics and prediction.

Requirements: Python experience is desirable for data analysis.

Start date: Semester 1, 2026

Trends in Summer CAPE over Tropical Australia

Supervisor: Thi Lan Dao

Atmospheric instability is important for thunderstorms, but previous studies have found different trends depending on the datasets used. In this project, you will analyse BARRA2, a high-resolution regional reanalysis for Australia, to examine how instability has changed over tropical Australia during summer from 1979 to 2019. You will calculate mean and extreme conditions, produce spatial maps, and create a regional mean time series for a fixed tropical box, and compare the results with earlier studies.

Requirements: Experience with Python for data analysis would be desirable.

Start date: Semester 1, 2026 (preferred)

The relationship between sea breezes and thunderstorms in Australia

Supervisor: Andrew Brown, with Rob Warren (Bureau of Meteorology)

The sea breeze is an atmospheric circulation that can develop along the coast in the afternoon, providing relatively cool, onshore winds. It can also provide a source of lift to air over the land, potentially initiating convection that can develop into thunderstorms if the conditions are right. In this project, the student will use two recently developed datasets to quantify the relationship between sea breezes and thunderstorms over parts of Australia for the first time.

Requirements: For this project, some experience with Python programming and geospatial datasets would be beneficial.

Start date: Semester 2, 2026 (or summer project)

The role of ENSO in multi-breadbasket failures

Supervisor: Mandy Freund, with Elisabeth Vogel

Simultaneous climate extremes across major agricultural regions can cause multi‑breadbasket failures, threatening global food security through harvest losses, export reductions, and price spikes. ENSO is a major driver of these extremes, with different phases increasing the risk of droughts, heatwaves, or flooding worldwide. This project investigates ENSO’s role in multi‑breadbasket failures for wheat or another major crop using global agricultural and hydroclimate data.

Start date: Flexible