Dr Eunice Lo
MPhys, PhD
Expertise
I investigate how extreme weather and climate change affect human health.
Current positions
Research Fellow in Climate Change and Health
Cabot Institute
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
Prior to joining Bristol University in 2017, I did a PhD in Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate at the University of Reading's Department of Meteorology. My thesis used climate change detection and attribution techniques to explore how detectable temperature changes associated with injecting sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere would be, if deployed, amid greenhouse gas and other external forcing and internal variability. Injecting sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere is one of many proposed methods of "geoengineering" the climate. These methods aim to slow the rate of climate warming and, therefore, buy us time for adaptation. My PhD thesis was solely based on hypothetical scenarios in climate models.
I obtained an M.Phys. in Physics and Astronomy from Durham University in 2013. My masters dissertation found that the infrared radiometers on the site of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) in Namibia were useful for detecting cloud and aerosol layers in the atmosphere for calibrating the ground-based gamma ray telescopes at HESS.
Research interests
I am interested in the impacts of climate variability and change on human health. In the past few years, I have been researching the changes in extreme weather events such as heatwaves and cold spells, and how these changes translate to negative health outcomes including illnesses and deaths. To answer research questions in this inter-disciplinary area, I utilise modelling methods in both climate science and epidemiology and collaborate with epidemiologists, public health experts and medical professionals.
The goal of my research is to provide new and useful information for policymakers to make decisions about climate adaptation and mitigation, so that fewer people will be adversely affected by climate change. To this end, I work with national organisations such as the Met Office and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), as well as local authorities.
I am also a contributing author to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group I, on Chapter 3: Human Influence on the Climate System.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Translating the Lived Experience of Heatwaves into Policy Action
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of EnglishDates
01/08/2024 to 31/07/2025
Understanding lived experience and behaviour during heatwaves
Principal Investigator
Description
With 40°C heat becoming more and more commonplace in the UK where overheating in homes and buildings is a key risk (Climate Change Committee, 2021), understanding the lived experience of…Dates
01/10/2023 to 31/07/2024
UNSEEN heatwave mortality
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
To estimate 'plausible' heat-related mortality that could have been in the 2022 record-breaking UK heatwave had the weather pattern been different. Project funded by Elizabeth Blackwell Institute and Cabot Institute…Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/06/2023 to 31/05/2024
Towards Understanding And Management Of Vector-borne Plant Virus Impacts On Nutrition In A Changing Climate
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
Vector-borne plant viruses and the diseases they cause (plant VBDs) provide a functional link between climate and human health. Weather and climate both impact insect vector populations over short and…Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/12/2022 to 15/03/2023
Heat-Health Impact Forecasting For National Heatwave Plan
Principal Investigator
Description
This is a seed-corn project in which the investigators will couple short-range temperature forecasts with established temperature-mortality models, to pave the way for future research and development of a new…Dates
14/11/2022 to 14/03/2023
Publications
Recent publications
23/05/2024Compound mortality impacts from extreme temperatures and the COVID-19 pandemic
Nature Communications
Expert judgement reveals current and emerging UK climate-mortality burden
Lancet Planetary Health
Managing climate change challenges to water security
Geo: Geography and Environment
Humid-heat extremes over land
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Heat impacts on human health in the Western Pacific Region
The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific