Professor Emily Shuckburgh CBE
Biography
Professor Emily Shuckburgh was appointed the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in November 2025.
Emily’s role is to provide independent scientific challenge, assurance and systems insights. This will ensure decisions across policy and delivery are informed by robust science, engineering and evidence.
Emily retains her role as Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge where she is Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration.
Emily was previously Director of Cambridge Zero at the University of Cambridge. She spent more than a decade at the British Antarctic Survey where her work included leading a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate. Prior to that she undertook research at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and at MIT.
She is co-author, with HM King Charles III and Tony Juniper, of the ‘Ladybird Book on Climate Change’.
Emily was awarded an OBE in 2016 and a CBE in 2025.
DESNZ Chief Scientific Adviser
The DESNZ Chief Scientific Adviser is responsible for:
- providing independent and impartial science and engineering advice
- ensuring the department has robust systems in place to access science and engineering expertise
- ensuring the department has robust systems in place to access science and engineering expertise
- maintaining strong links to academia and external experts, and working closely with other departmental CSAs to maximise collective expertise