Rees attended Bilborough Grammar School in Nottingham. She then went on to study Economics at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1965. She completed her Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy also at the University of London.
Professor Rees also acts as Director for both its Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (hosted jointly with the University of Leeds) and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Rees joined London School of Economics in 1969 as a Lecturer in Geography. Her main research interests include climate change and the governance of environmental resources and risk.
In the early 1990s she was the Dean of Geography and pro-vice chancellor at the University of Hull.
She then became Head of Geography and Deputy Director of London School of Economics until 2004. From May 2011 until September 2012, Rees was the acting Director of the London School of Economics.
She is currently the President of the Royal Geographical Society, the first woman to take on this role in the society’s history. Formerly, she acted as an adviser to the World Bank on water privatisation.
Rees is also Chair of the London School of Economics"s Grantham Institute on Climate Change, a board member of the United Nations Secretary General"s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and the International Scientific Advisory Council (ISAC), a director of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, and a Member of the Dutch national research programmes on Climate changes Spatial Planning (CcSP) and "Knowledge for Climate" (KfC).
