Professor David Stephenson

Professor honoured by election to Academia Europaea

Professor David Stephenson from the Mathematics Research Institute at the University of Exeter has been elected to become a member of the prestigious Academia Europaea.

He was nominated for his outstanding research in statistical climatology by the Academia’s section on “Earth and Cosmic Sciences” which currently has 52 members, of which less than half are climate scientists.

Professor Stephenson is the first scholar at Exeter ever to be honoured by election to the Academia Europaea.

The Academia Europea was founded in 1988 as an international, non-governmental association of individual scientists and scholars from all disciplines, who are experts and leaders in their own subject areas as recognised by their peers.

Members are selected by nomination from across the whole European continent, not only western Europe. Members also include European scholars who are resident in other regions of the world. Current membership stands at around 2,300, including more than 40 Nobel Laureates.

Professor Stephenson said: “I am absolutely delighted to be formally recognized as a leading European scholar by election to the prestigious Academia Europaea. For the past 20 years, my research has attempted to bridge the disciplines of statistical science and climate science in order to provide deeper insight on fundamental weather and climate processes. It is wonderful that my work in this important interdisciplinary area of research has been recognized in this way.”

Professor Stephenson’s induction ceremony will take place in Paris next September at the Academia’s annual meeting.

He added: “I am honoured to be able to support the key aims of the Academia to promote European scholarship, and to encourage the highest quality interdisciplinary and international research. Weather and climate problems do not respect national boundaries and so their solution requires coordinated international research across nations. I believe that with the team of talented individuals I am leading in Exeter Climate Systems, we can make a unique contribution to this by working at the important interdisciplinary frontier of mathematical and climate science.”

More information about the academy can be found at www.acadeuro.org

Date: 22 December 2010