London Speakers
Speakers in London, 13th March
Professor Jess Adkins, California Institute of Technology
An Associate Professor of geochemistry and environmental science, Prof. Adkins tries to elucidate the mechanisms behind past climate change in an effort to better understand our climatic future. To this end, he works on corals from the deep ocean, sediments and their pore fluids, stalagmites, and pretty much anything else he believes will help answer the question, "Why are there glacial cycles?" His lab group also investigates the biomineralization mechanisms that corals use to secrete their carbonate skeletons and the behaviour of trace metals in the modern oceanic water column.
Professor Edouard Bard, Collège de France
Edouard Bard is a Professor at the Collège de France. He was awarded the 1997 James B. Macelwane medal, which recognizes significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability. The citation included the words: “Edouard is the person to watch if one wants to learn about how the Earth's surface climate is recorded over time and how the cosmos influences the climatic and oceanographic tracers found at our planet's surface.” His research focus is on the use of analytical chemistry applied to various archives such as ocean and lake sediments, corals, stalagmites and polar ice to determine the extent and the timing of climatic variations.
An Associate Professor of geochemistry and environmental science, Prof. Adkins tries to elucidate the mechanisms behind past climate change in an effort to better understand our climatic future. To this end, he works on corals from the deep ocean, sediments and their pore fluids, stalagmites, and pretty much anything else he believes will help answer the question, "Why are there glacial cycles?" His lab group also investigates the biomineralization mechanisms that corals use to secrete their carbonate skeletons and the behaviour of trace metals in the modern oceanic water column.
Professor Edouard Bard, Collège de France
Edouard Bard is a Professor at the Collège de France. He was awarded the 1997 James B. Macelwane medal, which recognizes significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability. The citation included the words: “Edouard is the person to watch if one wants to learn about how the Earth's surface climate is recorded over time and how the cosmos influences the climatic and oceanographic tracers found at our planet's surface.” His research focus is on the use of analytical chemistry applied to various archives such as ocean and lake sediments, corals, stalagmites and polar ice to determine the extent and the timing of climatic variations.
Professor Mike Bickle, University of Cambridge
A co-convenor of the Symposium and a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. Major contributions have been to the understanding of the thermal evolution of mountain belts, the tectonic processes which operated in the early Earth, the physical processes which control melting within the Earth, quantification of fluid-flow in metamorphic rocks, and how to use river chemistry to evaluate geochemical fluxes to the oceans and the long-term controls on global climate. Current research encompasses the interactions which moderate long term climate and the physical and chemical processes which occur in sequestration of CO2 in geological reservoirs.
Professor Richard Brook, Leverhulme Trust
Prof. Brook is Director of the Leverhulme Trust in the UK and a materials scientist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was appointed Director of the Max Planck Materials Research Institute in 1988 and in 1993 was appointed Head of the Materials Science Department in Oxford University. In 1994 he became Chief Executive of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Professor David Cope, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
Prof. Cope has served since 1998 as the director of POST, the UK Parliament’s in-house source of independent, balanced and accessible analysis of public policy issues related to science and technology. Its aim is to inform parliamentary debate. Prof. Cope has also taught Energy and Resource Economics at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan.
Professor Peter Cox, University of Exeter
Prof. Cox holds the position of Met Office Chair in Climate System Dynamics and was a lead author on the IPCC Fourth Assessment report. He is also director of the “CLASSIC” Earth Observation Centre of Excellence (http://classic.nerc.ac.uk/), which uses Earth Observation data to quantify interactions between the land surface and climate. His personal research has focussed on interactions between the land surface and climate, and he led the team that carried out the first climate projections to include vegetation and the carbon cycle as interactive elements.
Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Scott Polar Research Institute
Julian Dowdeswell is Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in
Prof. Cox holds the position of Met Office Chair in Climate System Dynamics and was a lead author on the IPCC Fourth Assessment report. He is also director of the “CLASSIC” Earth Observation Centre of Excellence (http://classic.nerc.ac.uk/), which uses Earth Observation data to quantify interactions between the land surface and climate. His personal research has focussed on interactions between the land surface and climate, and he led the team that carried out the first climate projections to include vegetation and the carbon cycle as interactive elements.
Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Scott Polar Research Institute
Julian Dowdeswell is Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in
Professor Harry Elderfield, University of Cambridge
A co-convenor of the Symposium, Prof. Elderfield is the Director of the Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research at Cambridge University and a Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Society. His research interests are in ocean geochemistry and palaeochemistry, including the evaluation of glacial-interglacial changes in the ocean carbonate system and the generation of million-year records of Southern Ocean surface and deep-sea temperature.
Professor Inez Fung, University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Fung's research focuses on the understanding (and prediction) of the causes and consequences of atmospheric compositional changes and their role in climate change. She develops and applies large-scale mathematical modeling approaches and numerical models to represent the geographic and temporal variations of sources and sinks of CO2, dust and other trace substances around the globe; the transport and mixing of trace constituents by atmospheric circulation; and the interaction of these trace constituents with climate.
A co-convenor of the Symposium, Prof. Elderfield is the Director of the Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research at Cambridge University and a Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Society. His research interests are in ocean geochemistry and palaeochemistry, including the evaluation of glacial-interglacial changes in the ocean carbonate system and the generation of million-year records of Southern Ocean surface and deep-sea temperature.
Professor Inez Fung, University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Fung's research focuses on the understanding (and prediction) of the causes and consequences of atmospheric compositional changes and their role in climate change. She develops and applies large-scale mathematical modeling approaches and numerical models to represent the geographic and temporal variations of sources and sinks of CO2, dust and other trace substances around the globe; the transport and mixing of trace constituents by atmospheric circulation; and the interaction of these trace constituents with climate.
Roger Harrabin, BBC
The founder/presenter of Radio 4’s “Costing the Earth” environment series, Mr. Harrabin has worked for the BBC for many years, reporting on Panorama, Newsnight, Assignment and The World at One. His interests cover policy on the environment, transport, energy, development, public health and economics, particularly where these areas overlap. He is a graduate of St Catharine’s College Cambridge, and has spent academic sabbaticals at Green College Oxford and Wolfson College Cambridge, where he is an Associate Press Fellow. He co-directs the Cambridge Environment and Media Programme, which brings together senior journalists and outside experts to discuss media coverage of long-term sustainable development issues.
Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London
Sir Brian Hoskins, Professor of Meteorology, is a Royal Society Research Professor and member of the new Government Climate Change Committee. He played a major part in the 2000 Report by The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution that first proposed a 60% target for UK carbon-dioxide emission reduction by 2050. He is a member of the Science Academies of the UK, USA, China, Europe and Barcelona and has received a number of awards, including the top prizes of the UK and US Meteorological Societies and was recently knighted for "Services to the Environment".
Professor Sir David King, University of Oxford
Currently the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at Oxford University, Sir David King was the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 – 2007, having been Head of the University of Cambridge’s Chemistry Department since 1993. In his role as Chief Scientific Advisor, he raised the profile of the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the new £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. Outspoken on the issue of climate change, he has said: "There is no bigger problem than climate change. The threat is quite simple, it’s a threat to our civilization.”
Professor Corinne Le Quéré, University of East Anglia/British Antarctic Survey
As Professor in Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and Strategic Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey, Prof. Le Quéré's work focuses on the response of global CO2 sinks to recent climate change, including physical and ecosystem aspects. Her research uses numerical models and analysis of databases to determine the consequences of the projected increase in atmospheric CO2 and resulting changes in climate on the efficiency of the oceanic CO2 sink (which currently takes up 25% of the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere from human activities). She was a lead author for the IPCC 3rd and 4th Assessment Reports and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Professor Jochem Marotzke, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Prof. Marotzke is Director and Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology; Honorary Professor, University of Hamburg; and Scientific Director, German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ). His research interests concentrate on the role of the large-scale ocean circulation in climate and climate change, focusing on the ocean's thermohaline circulation (THC) while developing a fundamental understanding of meridional oceanic transport processes and how they interact with other components of the climate system.
Dr Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Laboratory of Sciences of the Climate & Environment
Dr. Masson-Delmotte is Head of the Ice and Continent paleoclimate research group at LSCE. She is now working on past climate and water cycle changes using stable isotope measurements conducted on polar ice cores and tree rings, on time scales varying from those of glacial-interglacial cycles to abrupt events and the last few centuries. She is co-author of more than 80 papers published in the international literature and a contributing author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment report. She is also active in education and outreach and has published two books for children related to climate change and polar expeditions.
Professor John Mitchell, Met Office
John Mitchell took charge of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in 1978. His main speciality is the study of the climatic effects of increases in greenhouse gases and related pollutants.
He has been a lead author of the last three IPCC Working Group I reports and is currently chairman of the WMO JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling. He is currently Chief Scientist at the Met Office; a visiting Professor at the School of Mathematics, Meteorology and Physics in the University of Reading; and an Honorary Professor of Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia.
The founder/presenter of Radio 4’s “Costing the Earth” environment series, Mr. Harrabin has worked for the BBC for many years, reporting on Panorama, Newsnight, Assignment and The World at One. His interests cover policy on the environment, transport, energy, development, public health and economics, particularly where these areas overlap. He is a graduate of St Catharine’s College Cambridge, and has spent academic sabbaticals at Green College Oxford and Wolfson College Cambridge, where he is an Associate Press Fellow. He co-directs the Cambridge Environment and Media Programme, which brings together senior journalists and outside experts to discuss media coverage of long-term sustainable development issues.
Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London
Sir Brian Hoskins, Professor of Meteorology, is a Royal Society Research Professor and member of the new Government Climate Change Committee. He played a major part in the 2000 Report by The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution that first proposed a 60% target for UK carbon-dioxide emission reduction by 2050. He is a member of the Science Academies of the UK, USA, China, Europe and Barcelona and has received a number of awards, including the top prizes of the UK and US Meteorological Societies and was recently knighted for "Services to the Environment".
Professor Sir David King, University of Oxford
Currently the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at Oxford University, Sir David King was the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 – 2007, having been Head of the University of Cambridge’s Chemistry Department since 1993. In his role as Chief Scientific Advisor, he raised the profile of the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the new £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. Outspoken on the issue of climate change, he has said: "There is no bigger problem than climate change. The threat is quite simple, it’s a threat to our civilization.”
Professor Corinne Le Quéré, University of East Anglia/British Antarctic Survey
As Professor in Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and Strategic Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey, Prof. Le Quéré's work focuses on the response of global CO2 sinks to recent climate change, including physical and ecosystem aspects. Her research uses numerical models and analysis of databases to determine the consequences of the projected increase in atmospheric CO2 and resulting changes in climate on the efficiency of the oceanic CO2 sink (which currently takes up 25% of the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere from human activities). She was a lead author for the IPCC 3rd and 4th Assessment Reports and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Professor Jochem Marotzke, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Prof. Marotzke is Director and Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology; Honorary Professor, University of Hamburg; and Scientific Director, German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ). His research interests concentrate on the role of the large-scale ocean circulation in climate and climate change, focusing on the ocean's thermohaline circulation (THC) while developing a fundamental understanding of meridional oceanic transport processes and how they interact with other components of the climate system.
Dr Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Laboratory of Sciences of the Climate & Environment
Dr. Masson-Delmotte is Head of the Ice and Continent paleoclimate research group at LSCE. She is now working on past climate and water cycle changes using stable isotope measurements conducted on polar ice cores and tree rings, on time scales varying from those of glacial-interglacial cycles to abrupt events and the last few centuries. She is co-author of more than 80 papers published in the international literature and a contributing author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment report. She is also active in education and outreach and has published two books for children related to climate change and polar expeditions.
Professor John Mitchell, Met Office
John Mitchell took charge of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in 1978. His main speciality is the study of the climatic effects of increases in greenhouse gases and related pollutants.
He has been a lead author of the last three IPCC Working Group I reports and is currently chairman of the WMO JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling. He is currently Chief Scientist at the Met Office; a visiting Professor at the School of Mathematics, Meteorology and Physics in the University of Reading; and an Honorary Professor of Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia.
Lord Rees, Royal Society
As well as President of the Royal Society, Martin Rees is Master of Trinity College and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, he has held the posts of Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy and of Director of the Institute of Astronomy. His current research deals especially with gamma ray bursts, galactic nuclei, black hole formation and radiative processes (including gravitational waves), and also cosmic structure formation, especially the generation of stars and galaxies that formed relatively soon after the "Big Bang". He is the author of seven books for a general readership, most recently Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century? He was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1995, nominated to the House of Lords in 2005 as a cross-bench peer, and appointed a member of the Order of Merit in 2007.
As well as President of the Royal Society, Martin Rees is Master of Trinity College and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, he has held the posts of Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy and of Director of the Institute of Astronomy. His current research deals especially with gamma ray bursts, galactic nuclei, black hole formation and radiative processes (including gravitational waves), and also cosmic structure formation, especially the generation of stars and galaxies that formed relatively soon after the "Big Bang". He is the author of seven books for a general readership, most recently Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century? He was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1995, nominated to the House of Lords in 2005 as a cross-bench peer, and appointed a member of the Order of Merit in 2007.
Professor Gerard Roe, University of Washington
Prof. Roe is a climate scientist, with specializations in atmospheric circulation, glaciology, paleoclimate, and the interaction of the atmosphere with the rest of the Earth system. Current research includes modelling the sensitivity and hence unpredictable nature of climatic variations.
Dr Gavin Schmidt, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Gavin Schmidt is a scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where he works on the large-scale modelling of climate. He is particularly interested in how models can be combined with palaeoclimate data to increase our confidence in future projections. He was cited by Scientific American as one the top 50 Research Leaders in 2004 and is co-chair of the PAGES-CLIVAR Intersection Panel. He is a co-founder of and contributing editor to RealClimate.org.
Dr. Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey
Dr. Shuckburgh is a NERC Research Fellow based at the British Antarctic Survey. Her research interests concern atmosphere and ocean dynamics, and in particular the physical mechanisms associated with transport and mixing processes. Her recent work uses a combination of theoretical approaches, observational studies and numerical modelling to better understand the dynamics of the Southern Ocean and its global influence on climate.
Dr Lonnie Thompson, The Ohio State University/Byrd Polar Research Center
Lonnie G. Thompson is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and a Research Scientist in the Byrd Polar Research Center. He and the OSU team have developed lightweight solar-powered drilling equipment that can acquire histories from ice fields in the tropical South American Andes, in the Himalayas, and on Kilimanjaro. These palaeoclimate histories have advanced our understanding of the coupled nature of the Earth's climate system. His observations of glacier retreat over the last three decades confirm that glaciers around the world are melting and provide clear evidence that the warming of the last 50 years is now outside the range of climate variability for several millennia, if not longer.
Professor Robert Watson, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Prof. Watson is Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. His areas of expertise include managing and coordinating national and international environmental programs, research programs and assessments; establishing science and environmental policies, specifically advising governments and civil society on the policy implications of scientific information and policy options for action; and communicating scientific, technical and economic information to policymakers. He has been Scientific/Policy Advisor in the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), White House and Scientific Advisor, Manager and Chief Scientist at the World Bank. In parallel to his formal positions, he has chaired, co-chaired or directed international scientific, technical and economic assessments of stratospheric ozone depletion, biodiversity/ecosystems (the GBA and MA), climate change (IPCC) and agricultural S&T (IAASTD).
Prof. Roe is a climate scientist, with specializations in atmospheric circulation, glaciology, paleoclimate, and the interaction of the atmosphere with the rest of the Earth system. Current research includes modelling the sensitivity and hence unpredictable nature of climatic variations.
Dr Gavin Schmidt, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Gavin Schmidt is a scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where he works on the large-scale modelling of climate. He is particularly interested in how models can be combined with palaeoclimate data to increase our confidence in future projections. He was cited by Scientific American as one the top 50 Research Leaders in 2004 and is co-chair of the PAGES-CLIVAR Intersection Panel. He is a co-founder of and contributing editor to RealClimate.org.
Dr. Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey
Dr. Shuckburgh is a NERC Research Fellow based at the British Antarctic Survey. Her research interests concern atmosphere and ocean dynamics, and in particular the physical mechanisms associated with transport and mixing processes. Her recent work uses a combination of theoretical approaches, observational studies and numerical modelling to better understand the dynamics of the Southern Ocean and its global influence on climate.
Dr Lonnie Thompson, The Ohio State University/Byrd Polar Research Center
Lonnie G. Thompson is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and a Research Scientist in the Byrd Polar Research Center. He and the OSU team have developed lightweight solar-powered drilling equipment that can acquire histories from ice fields in the tropical South American Andes, in the Himalayas, and on Kilimanjaro. These palaeoclimate histories have advanced our understanding of the coupled nature of the Earth's climate system. His observations of glacier retreat over the last three decades confirm that glaciers around the world are melting and provide clear evidence that the warming of the last 50 years is now outside the range of climate variability for several millennia, if not longer.
Professor Robert Watson, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Prof. Watson is Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. His areas of expertise include managing and coordinating national and international environmental programs, research programs and assessments; establishing science and environmental policies, specifically advising governments and civil society on the policy implications of scientific information and policy options for action; and communicating scientific, technical and economic information to policymakers. He has been Scientific/Policy Advisor in the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), White House and Scientific Advisor, Manager and Chief Scientist at the World Bank. In parallel to his formal positions, he has chaired, co-chaired or directed international scientific, technical and economic assessments of stratospheric ozone depletion, biodiversity/ecosystems (the GBA and MA), climate change (IPCC) and agricultural S&T (IAASTD).
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