University of Reading world climate change scientist honoured by his home town university – University of Reading
21 July 2008The University of Reading's leading climate scientist Professor Sir Brian Hoskins has been awarded an honorary degree by his home town university, the University of Bristol, being made a Doctor of Science.
Professor Hoskins said: " I really value this award because of the high profile it gives to climate change issues and the work we have done at Reading and, on a more personal level, because it is from the university in the city where I grew up."
Professor Hoskins is a Professor of Meteorology at the University of Reading. He was one of the pioneers of computer modelling of our environment and improving our understanding of the large scale circulation of the atmosphere.
In 1973, he joined a small group of academic meteorologists at the University of Reading, where he has been based ever since (more recently dividing his time with Imperial College London). He was made a Professor in 1981 and he subsequently he led the department in Reading for six years. Under his leadership the group expanded to become one of the largest and most successful Meteorology departments in the world.
He has played a major role in advising a wide range of national and international organisations and conferences on climate change. He made major contributions to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and to the Stern report on the economics of climate change. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution which wrote the first report to suggest that the UK should aim for a 60% reduction in emissions of CO2 by 2050. More recently, he is one of five world-class experts on the new committee on climate change, under the terms of the government's climate change bill, whose first task will be to advise the government on whether the 60% target should be raised to 80%.
He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1988 and received a CBE in 1998 for his services to Meteorology. He received a Knighthood last year.
ENDS
Further information from Alex Brannen, Senior Press Officer, University of Reading, on 0118 378 7388