World-leading climate expert to direct Imperial College London's new climate change Institute

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins takes leadership of Grantham Institute for Climate Change - <em>News Release</em>

For immediate use
Friday 7 December 2007

A renowned meteorologist and climate scientist has been named today as the first Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London.

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins FRS is a world-leading authority on climate issues and global weather patterns who uses mathematical models to understand weather systems in different parts of the world and how they interact. He has built one of the world's foremost meteorology departments at the University of Reading, and from 1 January 2008 he will share his time as a Royal Society Research Professor between Imperial College and Reading.

Committed to ensuring that climate research is used to advise governments and influence policy, Sir Brian was a member of the Royal Commission that first proposed a 60% target for reduction of UK carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. He also acted as a scientific advisor to the Stern Review, credited with pushing the issue of climate change to the centre of the political agenda in the UK, and was a member of the IPCC assessment team recently awarded the Nobel Prize.

He has made major contributions to understanding how storms and severe weather develop, and to explaining the profound influence of the El Nino phenomenon on global weather and climate.

His scientific achievements also include the establishment of a link between unusual weather events in the tropics and significant changes to the weather in the UK. This work used mathematical models to demonstrate the direct relationship between the weak Indian Monsoon of 2002 and the serious floods across Europe later that year.

The Grantham Institute for Climate Change was established at Imperial College in 2007 following a £12 million donation from Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham, through the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. The Institute is focused on understanding the radical climate changes occurring on Earth, how they affect human welfare and ecosystems and on developing the technological, market and policy solutions needed to mitigate and adapt to change at both a global and local level. Under the Directorship of Sir Brian, the Grantham Institute will work closely with the University of Reading and with other leading institutions in the UK and abroad to achieve this.

Welcoming Sir Brian's appointment, Sir Richard Sykes, Rector of Imperial College London, said:

"I'm delighted to welcome Sir Brian, one of the UK's most eminent climate scientists, to Imperial College. Climate change poses some of the most pressing, complex and difficult challenges of the 21st century, but thanks to the generosity and vision of Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham, Imperial is able to focus its expertise on providing workable solutions to the problems that climate change is creating on our planet."

Knighted in 2007 for his services to environmental science, Sir Brian has been the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Met Office since 1995, and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Commenting on his appointment, Sir Brian said:

"I'm extremely excited about the opportunities this new position affords, enabling me to lead an Institute that will harness the talents of world-leading experts from across Imperial College, and collaborate with the complementary talents at the University of Reading to deliver research with real-world impact. The range and depth of the combined expertise available is phenomenal: specialists in areas as diverse as public health, agriculture, engineering, climate and weather science, biodiversity, earth science, energy technologies and risk."

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Danielle Reeves
Imperial College London Press Office,
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 2198
Mob: +44 (0)7803 886248
Email: danielle.reeves@imperial.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

1. About Professor Sir Brian Hoskins CBE FRS

Sir Brian gained a first in Mathematics and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 1966 and 1970 respectively. After completing his PhD he became a Post Doctoral Fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the USA, and then a visiting scientist at the University of Princeton before moving to the University of Reading in 1971. At Reading he was appointed Reader in 1976 and then Head of the Department of Meteorology in 1990 – a post he held until 1996.

Sir Brian is a Royal Society Research Professor. He is review editor for Chapter 3 and author of the technical summary of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Sir Brian has been the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Met Office since 1995. He was elected as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2002 and appointed as a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the same year. He was knighted in 2007 for his services to environmental science.

Sir Brian's previous roles have included vice-chair of the World Climate Research Programme (2000-04), President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) (1991-95), President of the Royal Meteorological Society (1998-2000) and member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (1998-2005).

2. About the Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Imperial established the Grantham Institute for Climate Change in February 2007 following a £12 million donation from Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham. The Institute is stimulating a research drive to develop mitigation techniques to counter the effects of our changing climate, and to have a direct impact on public and private policy. So far, it has funded 7 new PhD research posts on subjects including carbon sequestration, flood and drought risks, novel photovoltaics, climate impacts on biodiversity, and wind energy. Further PhD and academic posts will be created over the next few months.

The Grantham Institute for Climate Change at the heart of Imperial's South Kensington Campus provides a focus for multidisciplinary research drawing on the existing expertise across the College's Faculties of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the Tanaka Business School.

Website: www.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange 

3. About Imperial College London

Rated as the world's fifth best university in the 2007 Times Higher Education Supplement University Rankings, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts over 12,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international

Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

With 66 Fellows of the Royal Society among our current academic staff and distinguished past members of the College including 14 Nobel Laureates and two Fields Medallists, Imperial's contribution to society has been immense. Inventions and innovations include the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of our research for the benefit of all continues today with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle climate change and mathematical modelling to predict and control the spread of infectious diseases.

The College's 100 years of living science will be celebrated throughout 2007 with a range of events to mark the Centenary of the signing of Imperial's founding charter on 8 July 1907.