Rate My Professor Ariaan Purich

Dr. Ariaan Purich is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment within Monash University’s Faculty of Science. Her academic background includes a BEng (Hons) in Environmental Engineering and a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Western Australia, an MSc in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from McGill University—where her research examined drivers of precipitation changes across the Southern Ocean and Australia, along with Australian heat waves—and a PhD in Climate Science from the University of New South Wales and CSIRO, submitted in 2018. Her doctoral work investigated drivers of recent Antarctic sea ice and surface temperature trends using observations and climate models. Before her PhD, she worked at CSIRO. Following her doctorate, Purich held postdoctoral positions in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and the ARC Special Research Initiative Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, before joining Monash University as a Research Fellow in March 2022 and advancing to her current role.

Purich’s research centers on Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate variability and change, atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions, and coupled climate modelling. Her recent studies explore drivers of current low Antarctic sea ice extents and climate responses to Antarctic meltwater projections. With over 4,493 citations on Google Scholar, her influential publications include “Record Low Antarctic Sea Ice Coverage Indicates a New Sea Ice State” (2023, Communications Earth & Environment), which garnered significant media attention; “Projected Impacts of Antarctic Meltwater Anomalies over the Twenty-First Century” (2023, Journal of Climate); “Antarctic shelf ocean warming and sea ice melt affected by projected El Niño changes” (2023); “Coral Sr/Ca-SST reconstruction from Fiji extending to ~1370 CE reveals insights into the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation” (2024); and “Distinct Central and Eastern Pacific El Niño Influence on Antarctic Surface Mass Balance” (2024). She co-authored the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2022 and received a 2024 Publication Award for her sea ice study, along with a nomination for Research Excellence by an Early Career Researcher in 2025. As part of a team, she earned the 2024 VC Excellence Awards Research Team of the Year. Purich co-chairs the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Region Panel and serves on the Southern Ocean freshwater release model experiments task team. Her work advances climate projections for sectors including coastal communities, agriculture, and water management.