Svitlana Krakovska

Svitlana Krakovska is a Ukrainian climate scientist and head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She is an applied climatologist who introduced climate models to Ukraine.

Biography She graduated from the Leningrad Hydrometeorological Institute with a degree in meteorology. Prior to joining the Antarctic station, she was in Siberia and the Arctic.

She has experience in mountaineering in the mountains of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Crimea and Karelia, skiing in the Khibiny Mountains, kayaking and catamaran rafting, and as a student she did a hydrographic vessel practice from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky around Chukotka, past Wrangel Island to Pevek and back to Providence Bay.

In 1997, she was one of the four Ukrainian women who first visited the Antarctic station Akademik Vernadsky. There, the scientist was engaged in meteorological observations.

Since 2013, she has been a delegate from Ukraine to meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She is the author of more than 100 publications.

In 2021, she received an award from President of Ukraine for her longtime contribution to Antarctic and climate change research.

In 2022, she appeared in Nature's 10 annual list "Ten people who helped shape science in 2022" by Nature — the leading British international weekly journal of science.

Research & experience Since 1991, Svitlana Krakovska has been a senior scientist and the Head of the Applied Meteorology and Climatology Department at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UHMI). Since 2018, she has also worked as a senior scientist in the Atmosphere Physics and Geospace Department at the National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine (NASC).

Between 2018 and 2022, she contributed to the 6th Assessment Report (AR6) of Working Group I of the IPCC. She served as the lead author of the chapter Atlas, Interactive Atlas, and Technical Summary, as well as the Regional Fact Sheets on Europe and Asia. Additionally, she was the coordinating author of the Fact Sheet for Forestry and a contributing author for Chapters 2, 6, 10, 12, and the Summary for Policymakers (SPM).

In 2017, she worked as a review editor for Chapter 5 of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C.

From 2005 to 2006, she conducted postdoctoral research on the detailed spectral parameterization of mixed cloud microphysics in weather forecast models. This research was part of an INTAS fellowship and was carried out at EU host institutions, including MPI-M in Hamburg and Météo-France in Toulouse.

Between 1997 and 1998, she participated in the first and second Ukrainian Antarctic Overwinter Expeditions at the Ukrainian Antarctic Station Akademik Vernadsky (formerly British Faraday). During this time, she worked as a researcher, meteorologist, network administrator, and mountaineering instructor.

Education In 2004, Svitlana Krakovska earned a PhD in Geophysics from the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UHMI). Her dissertation focused on the numerical simulation of the meso- and microstructure of frontal rainbands over target areas.

In 1991, she obtained a Master’s degree in Meteorology from the Leningrad Hydrometeorological Institute, which is now known as the Russian State Hydrometeorological University.

International scientific projects (selection)