List of climate scientists

Climate scientists study the climate system, including the statistics of the Earth's temperature (top) and precipitation (bottom).

This list of climate scientists contains famous or otherwise notable persons who have contributed to the study of climate science. The list is compiled manually so will not be complete or up to date. See also Category:Climatologists and List of authors of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. The list includes scientists from several specialities or disciplines.

A

• Ernest Afiesimama, former senior associate of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Physics of Weather and Climate Group) and head of numerical weather prediction at Nigerian Meteorological Agency. Presently, Programme Manager, Offices for Africa and Least Developed Countries, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
• Myles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics group at University of Oxford's Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department. Lead author, IPCC Third Assessment Report. Review editor, Fourth Assessment Report.
• Richard Alley (1957- ), American, Earth's cryosphere and global climate change.
• Kevin Anderson, is the Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and is an adviser to the British Government on climate change.
• James Annan, British climatologist with Blue Skies Research, UK
• Julie Arblaster, Australian climatologist at The Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research in CSIRO
• David Archer, American professor of oceanography at University of Chicago
• Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927), Swedish, greenhouse effect.

B

• Sallie Baliunas, American, astrophysicist, solar variation.
• Robert Balling, American, former director of the Office of Climatology and is a professor of geography at Arizona State University, climatology, global climate change, and geographic information systems.
• Édouard Bard, French climate scientist, specialized in past climate reconstruction.
• Eric J. Barron (1944- ), American geophysicist, President of Pennsylvania State University
• André Berger, (1942- ), Belgian, modeling climatic changes at the geological and at the century time scales.
• Richard A. Betts, Head of the Climate Impacts strategic area at the Met Office Hadley Centre.
• Jacob Bjerknes, Norwegian-American meteorologist
• Vilhelm Bjerknes (1862–1951), Norwegian, forecasting, numerical models.
• Bert Bolin (1925-2007), Swedish meteorologist, first chair of the IPCC
• Gerard C. Bond (1940-2005) American geologist and paleoclimate researcher
• Jason Box, American professor of glaciology at Ohio State University
• Raymond S. Bradley, American, historical temperatures, paleoclimatology, and climate variability.
• Keith Briffa (1952- ), United Kingdom, dendrochronology, temperature history.
• Wallace Smith Broecker (1931- ), American, Pleistocene geochronology, radiocarbon dating, and chemical oceanography.
• Harold E. Brooks (1959- ), American meteorologist, severe convective storm and tornado climatology as well as conducive atmospheric environments
• Keith Browning, British meteorologist; mesoscale meteorology, sparkles

C

• Ken Caldeira, American, climate engineering, ocean acidification, atmospheric chemistry.
• Guy Stewart Callendar, English,(February 1898 - October 1964), steam engineer and inventor who proposed what eventually became known as the Callendar effect, the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature.
• Mark Cane, American, modeling and prediction of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
• Anny Cazenave, French oceanographer specializing in satellite altimetry.
• Robert D. Cess, American atmospheric scientist, emeritus professor at Stony Brook University.
• Jule G. Charney (1917-1981) American meteorologist, pioneer in numerical weather modeling
• John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Best known (with Dr. Roy Spencer) for developing the first version of the satellite temperature record.
• John A. Church (1951- ), Australian oceanographer, chair of the [World Climate Research Programme]
• Ralph J. Cicerone (1943- ), American atmospheric chemist, President of U.S. National Academy of Sciences
• Mat Collins, Joint Met Office Chair in Climate, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter. Quantifying uncertainty in climate projections, dynamics of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, global and regional hydrological cycle changes, Indian Monsoon across multiple time scales, stochastic parameterisation, Arctic predictability.
• Harmon Craig (1926-2003), pioneering American geochemist
• Paul J. Crutzen (1933- ), Dutch, stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry, and their role in the biogeochemical cycles and climate.
• Heidi Cullen, American meteorologist, chief scientist for Climate Central
• Balfour Currie OC (1902-1981), Canadian climatologist at University of Saskatchewan
• Judith Curry American climatologist and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology

D

• Willi Dansgaard, Danish climatologist
• Scott Denning, American atmospheric scientist and professor at Colorado State University
• Andrew Dessler, American atmospheric scientist and professor at Texas A&M University
• Robert E. Dickinson. American climatologist, professor at University of Texas at Austin
• Mark Dyurgerov (died 2009), Russian-American glaciologist

E

• Sylvia Earle (1935- ), American marine biologist
• Arnt Eliassen dynamic meteorologist
• Kerry Emanuel (1955- ), American, atmospheric dynamics specializing in hurricanes.
• Matthew England (1966-), Australian, physical oceanographer and climate dynamicist.
• Ian G. Enting, Australian mathematical physicist at University of Melbourne

F

• Joe Farman, British, ozone hole above Antarctica
• Christopher Field, American climate scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science
• Piers Forster, British professor of Physical Climate Change at University of Leeds
• Joseph Fourier (1768–1830), French, greenhouse effect.
• Jennifer Francis Climate change in the Arctic
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), first mapped the course of the Gulf Stream for use in sending mail from the United States to Europe
• Chris Freeman, Welsh professor of biogeochemistry
• Inez Fung American, climate modeling, biogeochemical cycles, and climate change.
• Yevgraf Yevgrafovich Fyodorov (1880-1965), Russian climatologist

G

• Francis Galton (1822-1911), coined the term anticyclone
• Filippo Giorgi (1959- ), Italian atmospheric physicist, International Centre for Theoretical Physics
• Peter Gleick (1956- ), American, hydroclimatologist, hydrologic impacts of climate change, snowfall/snowmelt responses, water adaptation strategies, consequences of sea-level rise
• Jonathan M. Gregory, climate modeler, British, professor at University of Reading
• Jean M. Grove (d. 1927-2001), British, glaciologist; the Little Ice Age

H

• Joanna Haigh, (1954- ) British, solar variability
• Edmund Halley, published a map of the trade winds in 1686 after a voyage to the southern hemisphere.
• James E. Hansen (1941- ), American, planetary atmospheres, remote sensing, numerical models, and global warming.
• Kenneth Hare OC FRSC (1919-2002), Canadian climatologist
• Stephan Harrison, Associate Professor of Quaternary Science, University of Exeter. Geomorphological responses to climate change
• Katharine Hayhoe, Canadian, Atmospheric science, global climate models.
• Gabriele C. Hegerl (1963 - ), Professor of Climate System Science at the University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences.
• Isaac Held, German-American atmospheric physicist, researcher at GFDL
• Ann Henderson-Sellers (1952- ), Australian, climate change risk evaluation.
• David A. Hodell, (1958- ), British paleoclimatologist, professor at Cambridge University
• Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Australian oceanographer at University of Queensland
• Greg Holland Australian meteorology researcher at NCAR
• Brian Hoskins, British climatologist and professor at University of Reading
• John T. Houghton (1931- ), British, atmospheric physics, remote sensing.
• Malcolm K. Hughes, British meso-climatologist, professor at University of Arizona
• Mike Hulme (1960- ), British, climate impacts, climate modelling, climate and culture.
• Thomas Sterry Hunt (1826-1892), American, first scientist to connect carbon dioxide to climate change

J

• Eystein Jansen (1953- ), Norwegian professor of paleoceanography at University of Bergen
• Jonathan H. Jiang, American Scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, satellite observation.
• Phil Jones (1952- ), British, instrumental climate change, palaeoclimatology, detection of climate change.
• Jean Jouzel, French, glaciologist and climatologist specializing in major climatic shifts

K

• Daniel Kammen, American professor of Energy at University of California, Berkeley
• Lewis D. Kaplan, early modeler of carbon-dioxide greenhouse effect
• Thomas R. Karl (1951- ), American, climate extremes and variability.
• David Karoly, Australian professor of meteorology at University of Melbourne
• Charles David Keeling (1928–2005), American, atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements, Keeling Curve.
• Ralph Keeling, American professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• David W. Keith, Canadian, Geoengineering and CO₂ capture and storage research, University Professor at SEAS and Harvard Kennedy School
• Joseph B. Klemp, American atmospheric scientist at NCAR
• Kirill Y. Kondratyev (1920-2006), Russian atmospheric physicist
• Thomas Knutson, American climate modeller, researcher at GFDL
• Shen Kuo (1031–1095), Chinese scientist who inferred that climates naturally shifted over an enormous span of time, after observing petrified bamboos found underground near Yanzhou (modern day Yan'an, Shaanxi province), a dry-climate area unsuitable for the growth of bamboo
• John E. Kutzbach, American climatologist, professor emeritus at University of Wisconsin–Madison

L

• Dmitry Lachinov (1842-1902), Russian climatologist and engineer
• Hubert Lamb (1913-1997), British climatologist, founder of the Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia
• Kurt Lambeck, Australian, cryosphere-hydrosphere-lithosphere interactions, and sea level rise and its impact on human populations.
• Helmut Landsberg (1906-1985), German-American, fostered the use of statistical analysis in climatology, which led to its evolution into a physical science
• Mojib Latif (born 1954), German, meteorology and oceanography, climate modelling
• Anders Levermann, German professor of climate dynamics at University of Potsdam
• Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Hydroclimatology
• Richard Lindzen (1940- ), American, dynamic meteorology, especially planetary waves.
• Diana Liverman (1954-), American/British, climate impacts, vulnerability and policy
• Michael Lockwood, British professor of physics at Reading University
• Edward Norton Lorenz (1917–2008), American, discovery of the strange attractor notion and coined the term butterfly effect.
• Claude Lorius, French glaciologist, director emeritus of CNRS
• James Lovelock (1919- ), British, Gaia hypothesis and biotic feedbacks.
• James R. Luyten, American, physical oceanographer, director emeritus of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; ocean dynamics
• Amanda Lynch, Australian Professor at Brown University bridging research between atmospheric and climate change science, and environmental policy and Indigenous knowledge

M

• Michael MacCracken (1942- ), American, Chief Scientist at the Climate Institute in Washington, DC.
• Gordon J.F. MacDonald (1929-2002) was an American physicist who developed one of the first computational models of climate change, and was an early advocate for governmental action.
• Jerry D. Mahlman (1940-2012) was an American meteorologist and climatologist and a pioneer in the use of computational models of the atmosphere to examine the interactions between atmospheric chemistry and physics.
• Syukuro Manabe (1931- ), Japanese, professor Princeton University, pioneered the use of computers to simulate global climate change and natural climate variations.
• Gordon Manley (1902–1980), English, Central England temperature (CET) series.
• Michael E. Mann (1965- ), American, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and Director, Earth System Science Center, Penn State U. Climate variability and paleoclimate reconstructions; see Hockey stick graph.
• David Marshall, British physical oceanographer at the University of Oxford.
• Gordon McBean, Canadian, boundary layer research, hydrometeorology and environmental impact research, and weather forecasting.
• James J. McCarthy, American professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University
• Christopher McKay, American planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center
• Marcia McNutt, American geophysicist, Editor-in-Chief of Science
• Carl Mears, American, Senior Scientist at Remote Sensing Systems
• Gerald A. Meehl (1951-), American climatologist at NCAR.
• Patrick Michaels (1950- ), American climatologist.
• Milutin Milanković (1879–1958), Serbian, Milankovitch cycles.
• John F. B. Mitchell, British, climate modelling and detection and attribution of climate change
• Fritz Möller (1906-1983), German, early modeling of CO2 greenhouse effect
• Mario J. Molina (1943- ), Mexican, atmospheric chemistry and ozone depletion.
• Philip Mote Director, Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.
• Richard A. Muller (1944- ), American physicist, head of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, formerly an outspoken critic of current climate change science.
• R. E. Munn FRSC (1919-2013), Canadian climatologist

N

• Atsumu Ohmura (1942- ), Japanese climatologist, professor emeritus at ETH Zurich
• Gerald North (1938- ) American atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M and author of the North Report.

O

• Hans Oeschger (1927-1998), German paleoclimatologist and isotope chemist
• Abraham H Oort
• Michael Oppenheimer, American professor of geosciences at Princeton University
• Timothy Osborn, British professor of Climate Science at University of East Anglia

P

• Tim Palmer CBE FRS (1952- ), British mathematical physicist, climate modeler at Oxford University
• David E. Parker, British, surface temperature trend.
• Fyodor Panayev (1856-1933), Russian climatologist
• Graeme Pearman OA FAAS (1941- ), Australian climatologist
• William Richard Peltier (1943- ), Canadian, global geodynamic modeling and ice sheet reconstructions; atmospheric and oceanic waves and turbulence.
• Jean Robert Petit, French paleoclimatologist, emeritus director of research at Centre national de la recherche scientifique
• David Phillips OC (1944- ), Canadian climatologist and meteorologist
• Roger A. Pielke, Sr. (1946-), American, climate change, environmental vulnerability, numerical modeling, and atmospheric dynamics.
• Raymond Pierrehumbert, idealized climate modeling, Faint young sun paradox.
• Andrew Pitman (1964- ), British, terrestrial processes in global and regional climate modelling, model evaluation and earth systems approaches to understanding climate change.
• Gilbert Plass (1920-2004), Canadian. CO₂ greenhouse effect and AGW.
• Henry Pollack, American emeritus professor of geophysics at University of Michigan.
• Vicky Pope, British, Head of the Climate Prediction Programme at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.

Q

• Detlef Quadfasel, German professor of Geophysics at Niels Bohr Institute
• Corinne Le Quéré,Canadian/UK, Director of Tyndall Center for Climate Change

R

• Stefan Rahmstorf (1960- ), German, the role of ocean currents in climate change.
• Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Indian, general circulation models, atmospheric chemistry, and radiative transfer.
• Ichtiaque S. Rasool, (1930-), former Chief Scientist for Global Change at NASA
• Michael Raupach (1950-2015), Australian climatologist, formerly of CSIRO and was director of the Climate Change program at Australian National University
• Maureen Raymo, American, paleoclimatologist.
• Roger Revelle (1909–1991), American, global warming and chemical oceanography.
• Lewis Fry Richardson (1881-1953) English mathematician and meteorologist
• Eric Rignot, American professor of Earth System Science at University of California, Irvine
• Alan Robock (1941- ), American climatologist, professor at Rutgers University
• Joseph J. Romm (1960- ), American author, blogger, physicist and climate expert.
• Carl-Gustaf Rossby (1898-1957), Swedish-American climatologist
• Frank Sherwood Rowland (1927-2012), American atmospheric chemist at University of California, Irvine
• William Ruddiman, American, palaeoclimatologist, Early Anthropogenic Hypothesis
• Steve Running, American global ecologist at University of Montana

S

• Jim Salinger, New Zealand climatologist
• Dork Sahagian Armenian-American, Lehigh University
• Ben Santer (1955-), climatologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (1950 - ), German climatologist, was an author for the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• David Schindler, Canadian-American environmental chemist, professor of Ecology at University of Alberta
• Michael Schlesinger, American professor of Atmospheric Sciences at UIUC
• William H. Schlesinger (1950- ), American biogeochemist, former Dean of the Nicholas School at Duke University
• Gavin A. Schmidt, American climatologist and climate modeler at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
• Stephen H. Schneider (1945–2010), American, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University.
• Justin Schoof, American, ice-sheet dynamics
• Stephen E. Schwartz (1941 - ), American, chemistry of air pollutants, radiative forcing of aerosols on climate.
• Wolfgang Seiler (1940-), German climatologist, Director of the Institute of Meteorology and Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU) of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
• John H. Seinfeld, American atmosperic chemist at California Institute of Technology
• Sir Nicholas Shackleton (1937-2006), British paleoclimatologist at Cambridge University
• J. Marshall Shepherd American professor of meteorology at University of Georgia
• Steven Sherwood, Director, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales
• Drew Shindell, American atmospheric chemist, professor of Climate Sciences at Duke University
• Keith Shine, Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading
• Jagdish Shukla (1944- ), Indian-American climatologist, Distinguished University Professor at George Mason University
• Joanne Simpson (1923-2010), American meteorologist
• Julia Slingo (1950 - ), Chief Scientist at the Met Office since 2009 and former Director of Climate Research in NERC's National Centre for Atmospheric Science, at the University of Reading
• Joseph Smagorinsky (1924-2005), American meteorologist; first head of NOAA GFDL
• Susan Solomon (1956 - ), American, chlorofluorocarbons and ozone depletion.
• Richard C. J. Somerville (1941- ), American climatologist, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Kozma Spassky-Avtonomov (1807-1890), Russian climatologist
• Roy Spencer (scientist), climatologist, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville
• Konrad Steffen (1952- ), Swiss-American glaciologist at University of Colorado Boulder
• Will Steffen (1947- ), Australian climatologist, science advisor to Australian government.
• Thomas Stocker, Swiss, climate dynamics and paleoclimate modeling and reconstruction.
• Hans von Storch (born 1949), German, meteorology - Director of the Institute for Coastal Research at the Helmholtz Research Centre, Geesthacht, Germany
• Peter A. Stott, British, climate scientist [2].
• Ronald J. Stouffer, American, senior research climatologist and group head of the Climate and Ecosystems Group at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
• Hans E. Suess (1909–1993), Austrian, radiocarbon dating, Suess effect.
• Henrik Svensmark, Professor in the Division of Solar System Physics at the Danish National Space Institute (DTU Space) in Copenhagen.

T

• Simon Tett, British, detection and attribution of climate change, model initialization, and validation.
• Peter Thejll (1956- ), Danish, Northern Hemisphere land air temperature, solar variation and greenhouse effect
• Peter Thorne, British climatologist with the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Bergen, Norway
• Lonnie Thompson (1948- ), American, paleoclimatology, ice cores.
• Micha Tomkiewicz (1939- ), American, democratizing climate change, facilitating required energy transition, professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.
• Owen Toon, American professor of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at University of Colorado Boulder
• Kevin E. Trenberth, decadal variability, El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
• John Tyndall (1820-1893), British, measured radiative effect of greenhouse gases, postulated greenhouse effect hypothesis of climate change

V

• David Vaughan - ice sheets, British Antarctic Survey.
• Pier Vellinga (1950- ), Dutch climatologist, professor at Wageningen University
• Ricardo Villalba, Argentine paleoclimatologist.

W

• Peter Wadhams ScD (1948- ), is professor of Ocean Physics, and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge. He is best known for his work on sea ice.
• Warren M. Washington (1936- ), American, climate modelling.
• John Michael Wallace, North Atlantic oscillation, Arctic oscillation, El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
• Andrew Watson (1952-), British, marine and atmospheric sciences.
• Sir Robert Watson, British scientist and Chief Scientist for the World Bank
• Andrew J. Weaver, Canadian, climate modeling and analysis.
• Harry Wexler (1911-1962), American meteorologist
• Penny Whetton, Australian, regional climate change projections for Australia. A lead author of the IPCC third and fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change.
• Tom Wigley, Australian climatologist at University of Adelaide
• Josh Willis, American oceanographer at NASA's JPL
• David Wratt, new Zeelander, Chief Scientist at NIWA
• Carl Wunsch (1941- ), Physical oceanography and ocean acoustic tomography.

Z

• Olga Zolina (1975- ), Russian climatologist
• Eduardo Zorita (1961- ), Spanish paleoclimatologist, Senior Scientist at GKSS

See also

• List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming
• List of authors from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis
• Women in climate change