Teaching Strengths
Dr Georgina Falster
ARC Grant-Funded Research Fellow
School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
College of Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.
I am a DECRA Fellow in Climate Science. I take a holistic approach to understanding Earth's climate and how it is changing - combining information from weather observations, climate model simulations, and natural archives of long-term climate variability (like tree rings and ice cores).I am mainly interested in the water cycle, on spatial scales from local to global, and time scales from monthly to multi-centennial. Within that, I have particular focus on: Australian droughts and how they are changing, tropical Pacific variability, and using water isotopes to track dynamical variability in the water cycle.
I am a climate scientist, focussed on Earth's water cycle. I try to understand the huge range of factors influencing when, where, and why rain falls in different places around the world - and how that is changing because of climate change.
I take a holistic approach to understanding Earth’s water cycle, producing and combining information from weather observations, climate model simulations, and natural archives of climate variability through past centuries (e.g., tree rings and ice cores). I study water cycle behaviour on spatial scales from local to global and on time scales from monthly to multi-centennial.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2025 | ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Science Postdoctoral Fellow | Australian National University |
| 2019 - 2021 | Postdoctoral Researcher | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Award | STA Superstar of STEM | Science and Technology Australia | Australia | - |
| 2024 | Teaching Award | K. S. W. Campbell Award in Earth Science | Australian National University | Australia | - |
| 2023 | Award | ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes prize for best paper published by a postdoctoral researcher | Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes | Australia | - |
| 2019 | Award | Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence | The University of Adelaide | Australia | - |
| 2016 | Award | AUGU RC Heddle Award | Adelaide University Graduates Union | Australia | - |
| 2015 | Research Award | AINSE Postgraduate Research Award | - | Australia | - |
| 2014 | Scholarship | CRC LEME Scholarship for outstanding research in the field of regolith science | The University of Adelaide | Australia | - |
| 2010 | Award | James Barrans Scholarship | The University of Adelaide | - | - |
| 2009 | Award | Glenn Scotford Memorial Prize | The University of Adelaide | - | - |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 - 2019 | University of Adelaide | Australia | PhD in Earth Sciences |
| 2008 - 2011 | University of Adelaide | Australia | Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours) in Geology |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Falster, G. (2025). Spatially continuous monthly precipitation stable isotope estimates across the Australian continent at 0.25° resolution from 1962–2023. DOI |
| 2024 | Falster, G. (2024). Output from Linear Inverse Models (LIMs) emulating the observed spatiotemporal statistics of Australian precipitation and global sea surface temperatures. DOI |
| 2023 | Falster, G. (2023). Forced changes in the Pacific Walker circulation over the past millennium. DOI |
| - | Falster, G., Grant, K., Tyler, J., Tibby, J., Turney, C., Lohr, S., . . . Kershaw, A. P. (n.d.). Falster_et_al_2018_Lake_Surprise.xlsx. DOI |
- 2025–2028: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) DE250100071 "Quantifying Australia’s long-term risk of rainfall extremes". Sole investigator. AU$438,335
- 2025: L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science Fellowship. Sole investigator. AU$25,000.
- 2025: University of Adelaide Research Equipment Support Scheme. Sole investigator. $AU12,000
- 2025 : University of Adelaide Environment Institute Research Funding Scheme "A tree ring analytical facility to constrain decadal-scale risk in Australia’s rainfall extremes". AU$28,130
- 2025: National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) Merit Allocation Scheme "The role of Indo-Pacific SST variability in global drought occurrence". Chief investigator. 1000 kSU on Gadi supercomputer, equivalent to AU$40,000 at official NCI rate
Current
- University of Adelaide GEOLOGY3505 – Earth Systems History (core teaching staff).
- Third-year undergraduate course focusing on interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
- University of Adelaide GEOLOGY2505 – Geochemistry (core teaching staff).
- Second-year undergraduate course focusing on the chemistry of the natural world, including practical and theoretical geochemistry.
Past
- Australian National University EMSC1006 – The Blue Planet (core teaching staff).
- First-year undergraduate course providing a broad introduction to Earth system science, with typical enrolment ~160-180 students.
- Australian National University EMSC3019 – Coral Reef Field Studies (core teaching staff).
- Third-year intensive field course providing students with advanced knowledge of coral reef environments.
- Australian National University ARCH8032 – Introduction to Archaeological Science (guest).
- Masters course introducing students to archaeological methods. I taught oxygen isotope methods for constraining climate variability (in an archaeological context).
- Australian National University EMSC4122 – Analytical Methods (guest).
- Postgraduate course in laboratory methods for physical geography. I taught advanced water isotope systematics, analysis of water isotopes, and use of water isotopes for understanding water cycle processes.
- ARC Centre of Excellent for Climate Extremes Winter School (guest).
- Intensive course for Australian climate science graduate students (~70 attendees). I co-taught one day of the winter school, focussed on long-term climate dynamics (lectures and two practical activities).
- Washington University in St. Louis EPSc486 – Paleoclimatology (guest).
- Advanced paleoclimatology course for postgraduate students & fourth-year undergraduate students. I prepared and delivered course material covering the last deglaciation.
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Climate change on Kangaroo Island | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Abigail Matthias |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Climate change on Kangaroo Island | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Abigail Matthias |
| Date | Role | Committee | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 - ongoing | Co-Chair | Hydroclimate2k | Past Global Changes (PAGES) 2k Network | Switzerland |
| 2025 - ongoing | Member | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology Early to Mid Career Researcher Committee | The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2023 - 2024 | Co-Chair | Research School of Earth Sciences Seminar Committee | Australian National University | Australia |
| 2023 - 2024 | Co-Chair | ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes Early Career Researcher Committee | Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes | Australia |
| 2021 - 2024 | Co-Chair | Past Global Changes (PAGES) Early Career Network Steering Committee | Past Global Changes (PAGES) | Switzerland |
| 2021 - ongoing | Co-Chair | Past Global Changes (PAGES) 2k Network | Past Global Changes - a Future Earth initiative | Switzerland |
| 2017 - 2019 | Treasurer | Australasian Quaternary Association | Australasian Quaternary Association | Australia |
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External Profiles
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