Rachel McCarthy

Rachel McCarthy (born 31 July 1984) is a British scientist, poet and broadcaster.

Dr Rachel McCarthy
McCarthy photographed by The Guardian, 2015
Born
Rachel Elizabeth McCarthy

(1984-07-31) 31 July 1984
Preston, Lancashire, England
Education
Alma materUniversity College, Durham (BSc, PhD)
Occupation
  • climatologist
  • poet
  • essayist
  • broadcaster
Years active2006–present
Notable work
Element (2015)

Alphabet of Our Universe (2016)

Awards
  • Laureate's Choice (2015)
Websitewww.rachelmccarthy.com

Early life and education

Dr. Rachel Elizabeth McCarthy was born in Preston, Lancashire. She was educated at St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Leyland, Leyland St Mary's Catholic High School and studied six A-levels at Runshaw College, Leyland. She studied Natural Sciences at Durham University as a member of University College. She graduated in 2006 with double first class honours in Chemistry and Physics, later completing a doctorate in climatology.

Career

In 2008, she joined the Met Office soon becoming a Senior Climate Scientist, specialising in Climate Impacts and Disaster Risk Reduction. In 2010, she was seconded to London to advise the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change on policy matters relating to weather and climate, including renewable energy provision. On her return to the Met Office she worked as Private Secretary to the Met Office Chief Scientist Prof. Dame Julia Slingo and became the first to hold the post of Expert Scientist in Communications.. She was contributor to and editor responsible for the Met office Hadley Centre's contributions to Sir John Houghton's 5th edition of Global Warming:the complete briefing.[1] [2]

In 2009, she established ExCite Poetry,[3] the Devon arm of the UK Poetry Society. Within six months of its formation, ExCite Poetry became the largest regional arm of the Poetry Society by a significant margin with well over 200 members and was consequently the focus of the first of a series of poetry workshops with Ruth Padel on BBC Radio 4.[4] Between 2009 and 2013, she co-hosted a monthly arts-review show on Phonic FM,[5] hailed by The Sunday Times as "providing some of the most inspiring broadcasting in the country".[6] In 2013, she became Director of the Exeter Poetry Festival.[7] which saw its international inclusion and work with children escalate. This was the first time it made substantial profit, reinvested in the community programme.

In 2015 McCarthy won the first Laureate's Choice Award.[8] In 2016 she converted the research behind the book into a one-woman multimedia experience called 'Alphabet of Our Universe' with numerous shows across the UK and an exclusive interview with McCarthy in The Guardian on Alphabet's Oxford premiere.[9][10]

The same year she was appointed as an Expert for the European Commission, to advise on the scientific validity of projects submitted under the EU's H2020 Climate Programme; the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).[11]

Honours and awards

In 2015, she was chosen by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as one of four of the most exciting new voices in British poetry that year. Her first pamphlet "Element" was published in June 2015 by Smith Doorstop under the imprint of Laureate's Choice,[12] taking its impetus from the naming and properties of the transition metals of the periodic table. The Laureates Choice scheme continued for a further four years and to celebrate the culmination of Carol Ann Duffy's tenure as Poet Laureate eight of McCarthy's poems and an interview were published in 'The Laureate's Choice Anthology' in 2019, which anthologised the work of all twenty 'exciting and eclectic new voices in contemporary verse'.[13]

Published works

Poetry
  • Anthologised in The Laureate's Choice Anthology (2019) [14]
  • On Preservation (commissioned by Blue Door Press and Poetry in Aldeburgh (2017).[15]
  • Element - Laureate's Choice Award (2015) [16]
  • Anthologised in the Poetry Business Book of New Contemporary Poets (2014) [17]
  • Survey at 70˚N (2013) [18]
  • Mendeleev's Horse, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (2011) [19]
  • Two Followers of Cadmus Devoured by a Dragon (2010) [20]
  • Murmuration (2009) commissioned by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for Anthony Gormley's One and Other project [21]

Scientific papers
  • McCarthy, R., 2015: "Climate Communication: Bringing It All Together" - presented at Our Common Future Under Climate Change Conference, Paris, July 2015",[22]
  • Met Office., 2014: "Too hot, too dry, too wet, too cold: Drivers and impacts of seasonal weather in the UK" [23]
  • Met Office., 2013: "The recent pause in global warming(3): What are the implications for projections of future warming?" [24]
  • Met Office., 2013: "The recent pause in global warming(2): What are the potential causes?" [24]
  • Met Office., 2013: "The recent pause in global warming(1): What do the observations tell us?" [24]
  • Palin et al., 2013: "Future projections of temperature-related climate change impacts on the railway network of Great Britain", Climatic Change, 120(1- 2), 71-93 [25]

Articles and essays
  • Postcard from a Floodplain Near You(Free Word", May 2016).[26]
  • A Different Sort of Provocation(The London Magazine, March 2016).[27]
  • Climate Variability and Change: Migration and the Changing Concepts of Identity and Home in the Poetry of European Women (Cambridge Scholars, March 2014).[28]
  • Weeding Out Success: The Inaugural Ted Hughes Award (The Bookseller, March 2009).[29]
  • Midas Touch: What Carol Ann Duffy's Appointment Means for the Laureateship (Poetry News', Summer 2009).[30]
  • Great Expectations for Duffy (The Bookseller, May 2009).[31]
  • Andrew Motion: Leaving the Laureateship (Pan Macmillan, April 2009).[32]Archived 2010-02-19 at the Wayback Machine
  • On Gender and Poetry (Pan Macmillan, Feb 2009).[33] Archived 2010-02-19 at the Wayback Machine

References
  1. Global Warming:the complete briefing, 5th Edition. 10 January 2015. ISBN 978-1-107-09167-2. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  2. "Acknowledgements - Global Warming: the complete briefing, 5th Edition, page 17". 30 August 2015. ISBN 978-1-107-09167-2. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  3. "Business profile for excitepoetry.org provided by Network Solutions". www.excitepoetry.org. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  4. "Poetry Workshop Series One, Episode One". 31 July 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  5. FM, Phonic. "Phonic FM: Exeter's community radio station » Blah! Blah! Blah!". www.phonic.fm. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  6. Christian, piece by Brook (10 December 2009). "Phonic and the search for good alternative radio". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  7. "Promoting Exeter Poetry Festival and poetry in Devon". Exeter Poetry Festival. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  8. Laureate's Choice Award by Carol Ann Duffy - Element. 21 June 2015. ISBN 978-1-910367-45-2. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  9. Fleming, Interview by Amy (11 January 2016). "Rachel McCarthy: the climate change scientist and poet unlocking elemental forces". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  10. "Moseley Event: Alphabet of Our Universe by Rachel McCarthy". 12 January 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  11. "Horizon 2020". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  12. "Smith Doorstop". Smith Doorstopl. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  13. The Laureate's Choice Anthology - Twenty poets chosen by Carol Ann Duffy. 5 October 2019. ISBN 978-1-912196-76-0. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  14. The Laureate's Choice Anthology - Twenty poets chosen by Carol Ann Duffy. poetrybusiness.co.uk. 5 October 2019. ISBN 978-1-912196-76-0. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  15. Herrings, On Preservation. 15 March 2017. ISBN 978-1-9997264-0-9. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  16. "Element". poetrybusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  17. The Poetry Business – CAST: The Poetry Business Book of New Contemporary Poets. Poetrybusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  18. "Survey at 70˚N :McCarthy, R.(2013).Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language, 5(2)"". Retrieved 15 December 2014. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. "BBC Radio 4 - Poetry Workshop, Series 1, Episode 1". BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  20. "Two Followers of Cadmus Devoured by a Dragon" (PDF). Shearsman Magazine 83/84, April 2010. 15 April 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2018. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. "Murmuration". Sky Arts. 6 June 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  22. "Climate Communication: Bringing It All Together - presented at Our Common Future Under Climate Change Conference, Paris, July 2015". UNFCCC. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  23. "Drivers and impacts of the seasonal weather in the UK". Met Office. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  24. "The recent pause in warming". Met Office. 14 April 2014. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  25. Palin, Erika J.; Thornton, Hazel E.; Mathison, Camilla T.; McCarthy, Rachel E.; Clark, Robin T.; Dora, John (2013). "Future projections of temperature-related climate change impacts on the railway network of Great Britain". Climatic Change. 120: 71–93. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0810-8.
  26. "Postcard from a Floodplain Near You". 29 May 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  27. "A Different Sort of Provocation". The London Magazine. 1 March 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  28. Displaced Women Multilingual Narratives of Migration in Europe. Chapter = Climate Variability and Change: Migration and the Changing Concepts of Identity and Home in the Poetry of European Women. Cambridge Scholars. 1 April 2014. ISBN 978-1-4438-5528-0. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  29. "Weeding out Success:The Inaugural Ted Hughes Award". The Bookseller. 1 March 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  30. "Midas Touch : What Carol Ann Duffy's Appointment Means for the Laureateship". Poetry News Summer 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  31. "Great Expectations for Duffy". The Bookseller. 7 May 2009.
  32. "Andrew Motion: Leaving the Laureateship". Pan Macmillan. 20 April 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
  33. "On Gender and Poetry". Pan Macmillan. 7 February 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
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