People

climate change, climate prediction, Earth observation, precipitation, environment, science policy, atmospheric science

Education:

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Atmospheric Science: 2009 – 2013, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering: 2009 – 2012, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

Ph.D. thesis title: Improving Climate Projections Through the Assessment of Model Uncertainty and Bias in the Global Water Cycle

Short biography:

Noel C. Baker is a climate scientist, policy activist, and science communicator. She obtained a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a focus on atmospheric science from Arizona State University in Tempe, USA in 2013. Following her graduation, she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from NASA. She has continued to work as a research scientist in the USA, Germany, and Belgium. She started working for BIRA-IASB in March 2018 as a project coordinator and manager for the ALTIUS satellite and PICASSO CubeSat missions, and more recently for the NO2 camera instrument.

Since 2020, Noel has served as a member of the EGU’s Science for Policy Working Group and supports the Climate Hazards and Risks Task Force. In 2024, she was appointed the policy officer of the Europlanet society BeNeLux hub. In 2025, she became the BELSPO Coord-R&I single-point-of-contact (SPOC) for BIRA-IASB.

In addition to her science and policy work, Noel manages a variety of outreach activities. She enjoys participating in public events to engage and inspire science interest in people of all ages. A life-long painter and illustrator, Noel also uses art as a means of communication, recently serving as both the scientific coordinator and an artist participant of science-art expositions in Brussels.