Climate Witness Science Advisory Panel

Science Advisory Panel members

Prof. Mahamed Senouci specialises in climate variability and climate change in the Mediterranean region with special emphasis on North Africa, climate impacts and links between climate, decision and sustainable development; Hydrometeorological Institute for Training and Research in Oran, Algeria

Prof. Dr Vicente R. Barros, specialises in regional climate variability and climate impacts on agriculture and coastal areas; Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Prof. Osvaldo Canziani specialises in flooding and affects of el nino; National Universities of La Plata and Comahue; Argentina

Prof. Juan Carlos Leiva specialises in snow hydrology, change and water resources of Patagonian glaciers; Argentine Institute of Snow and Glaciers (CRICYT), Argentina

Dr Claudio G. Menéndez specialises in regional climate change and variability in South America and Antarctic Peninsula. He is currently involved in a number of projects on climate change and variability in South America. He has also been involved in the production of the IPCC AR4 as a lead author of the WG1 chapter on regional climate projections. Independent research and of the National Council of Research of Argentina (CONICET), Argentina

Prof. Jorge Rabassa specialises in middle latitude mountain glaciers and Antarctic Pennisula environments; Principle Investigator, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cientificas (CADIC - CONICET), Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Dr Jorge Strelin specialises in the extreme south of South America, the Scotia Arc and the Antarctic Peninsula; Director, Instituto Antartico Argentino, Argentina

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg specialises in reefs; the Physiological basis of stress in reef-building corals; climate change and tropical marine ecosystems; patterns of gene flow in coral populations; and the role of coral pigmentation in the biology of corals; Director, Centre for Marine Studies, University of Queensland, Australia

Associate Professor Lesley Hughes, specialises in species and natural ecosystems; Climate Risk Concentration of Research Excellence (CORE), Macquarie University, Australia

Dr Roger Jones specialises in climate risk management and integrated assessment of climate change; CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Australia

Professor David Karoly specialises in climate variability and change, global warming, ozone depletion and climate dynamics; School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia

Dr Barrie Pittock, specialises in climate change and variability, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, solar-weather relations, climate impacts and adaptation, Australia

Dr Leonard Nurse specialises in human impact on coastal dynamics, integrated coastal management and the impact of climate change on small island environments; Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies, The University of the West Indies, Barbados

Ann Gordon as worked as a meteorologist at the National Meteorological Service in Belize since 2001 and is actively involved in Belize’s Climate Change National Focal Point which focuses on education and outreach for climate change, Belize

Dr Ulisses Confalonieri specialises in human health in general, with an emphasis on infectious diseases; vector-borne diseases which have foci in the natural ecosystems, and following closely the issues related to anthropic changes in tropical ecosystems; Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca (ENSP), Brazil

Dr Philip Fearnside; Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia-INPA, Brazil

Dr José Marengo; CPTEC (Centre for Climatic and Forecasting Studies) Brazil

Dr Carlos Nobre; CPTEC (Centre for Climatic and Forecasting Studies), Brazil

Dr Jim Bruce, specialises in water resource impacts; Global Change Strategies International, Canada

Michael Demuth specialises in glaciology, cold regions hydrology, snow and ice hazards mitigation, climate change detection, snow and ice remote sensing, radar geophysics; Geological Survey of Canada, Canada

Prof. Chris Furgal is the lead author of the IPCC Polar Regions Chapter and recent Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Assessment, Northern Regions Chapter. He specialises in biological and social science issues related to environmental contaminants, climate change and other environmental health related issues, their management and impacts on people in the circumpolar North and Aboriginal subsistence activities; Indigenous Environmental Studies Program, Gzowski College, Trent University, Canada

Prof. Paul Kovacs specializes in the economics of building resilient communities through proactive adaptation to climate extremes by home builders, municipal leaders and insurance companies; Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), University of Western Ontario, Canada

Prof. Ken Minns specializes in freshwater ecosystems the effects of climate change on them, especially temperate, north temperate and arctic freshwater ecosystems; University of Toronto, Canada

Dr Monirul Mirza specialises in extreme weather events and climate change, impacts on water and energy sectors, vulnerability and adaptation monitoring and assessment, climate trends and scenarios; Adaptation & Impacts Research Division (AIRD), Environment Canada; Dept. of Physical & Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada

Prof. Mark Nuttall specialises in anthropology of the Arctic and North Atlantic; human-environment relations, sustainability of living marine resources, climate change, locality, identity and memory; Greenland, Alaska, Canada, Scotland, Scandinavia; Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Canada

Prof. George Rose specialises in the impacts of climate change on marine fisheries; Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada

Prof. Zong-Ci Zhao, National Climate Center (NCC), China Meteorological Administration (CMA), China

Prof. Ren Guoyu, specialises in paleoclimatology and climate change; China Meteorological Administration, China

Prof. Lin Erda, specialises in climate change impacts, vulnerability and GHG emission mitigation; Institute of Agriculture Environment and Sustainable Development (IAESD), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China

Dr Li Yu'er, Chinese Academy of Agriculture, China

Prof. Zhang Chengyi, specialises in climate impacts and ecological adaptation; China Meteorological Administration, China

Prof. Shen Yongping, specialises in glacial melting; Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, China Meteorological Administration, China

Prof. Patrick Nunn specialises in oceanic geoscience, with a focus on island nations and Pacific rim nations; Professor of Oceanic Geoscience, Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PACE-SD), Geography Department, University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Dr Tony Weir is co-author of a university text book on renewable energy resources and was formerly involved in policy analysis and development relating to science and technology, energy policy and climate change for the Australian Government. He is currently a Senior Research Consultant and postgraduate teacher at the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Ghislain Dubois specialises in the impact of global warming on tourism and the integration of sustainable development in the tourism sector; Territories, Environnement Conseil (TEC), Marseille, France

Dr Eric Martin specialises in changes in snow cover and their consequences. CNRM-GAME/GMME/MC2, Météo-France, Toulouse, France

Prof. Wolfgang Cramer, specialises in global biosphere dynamics and feedback between the biosphere and the rest of the Earth System including human society; Department of Global Change and Natural Systems, Potsdam University, Germany

Prof. Dr Annette Menzel, specialises in impacts of climate change on biological and physical systems, questions of adaptation and mitigation related to vegetation as well as interactions between atmosphere and vegetation; Department of Ecology, Chair of Ecoclimatology, Technical University of Munich, Germany

Dr Michael Schirmer, specialises in freshwater, brackish and coastal ecosystems; anthropogenic impacts and management; climate change impact on natural and social systems; coastal protection and adaptation in low lying regions; University of Bremen, Germany

Dr Christos Giannakopulos; Institute of Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, Greece

Dr Pramod Aggarwal specialises in the impact on agricultural production especially grains such as wheat and rice; Centre for Applications of Systems Simulation, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

Prof. S. K. Dash, specialises in monsoon studies, climate modelling and meteorological Computing; Centre for Atmospheric Sciences; Indian Institute of Technology, India

Prof. Dr Brij Gopal, specialises in wetlands ecology & management, biogeochemistry, lake conservation, restoration of lakes and rivers, floodplains, socio-economic aspects. economic valuation, Climate change impacts; School of Environmental Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Prof. Manmohan Kapshe, specialises in the effects of long-term environmental changes on human settlements and infrastructure; Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, India

Dr K. Krishna Kumar, specialises in monsoon variability and prediction, dendroclimatology and climate impact studies; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India

Prof. Dr Murari Lal, specialises in global and regional climate variability, scenario development, regional environmental change, sectoral vulnerability assessment (water, biodiversity and agriculture), landscape ecology, biophysical remote sensing – GIS applications, ecosystem modeling, regional adaptation & mitigation potential, water resource management;  Environment and Carbon Trading Group Halcrow Consulting India Ltd., India

Dr Abhijit Mitra, specialises in the effect of climate change on mangrove ecosystems in the tropics; Dept. of Marine Sciences, University of Calcutta, India

Prof. Dr Govind Ballabh Pant, specialises in climatology; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India

Prof. N. H. Ravindranath, specialises in the impacts of climate change on forestry; Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, India

Prof. Dr Joyashree Roy, specialises in monsoon changes, health impacts and adaptation in agriculture; Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, India

Dr Rizaldi Boer specialises in changes in precipitation and direct consequences on agriculture, forestry and water resources for all countries in southeast Asia; Institut Pertanian Bogor (Agricultural Institute of Bogor), Indonesia

Dr John Sweeney; specialises in statistical downscaling techniques which enable climate change scenarios for mid and end century to be used in running other models such as hydrological and agricultural and also in aspects of health and coastal change; National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland

Dr Vincenzo Artale specialises in ocean circulation and impact studies of climate change in the ocean, in particular in the Mediterranean Sea. He was a contributing author of the IPCC 4th Assessment report: Chapter 5 – Ocean Observation and sea level rise, Italy

Prof. Riccardo Valentini specialises in carbon cycle, forest ecology, biodiversity, desertification and climate policy, in the Mediterranean, and in Siberia, Amazonia and Africa; University of Tuscia, Italy

Prof. Dr Shuzo Nishioka, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan (NIES), Japan

Dr Hideo Harasawa, specialises in impacts of climate change on water resources, crop production and natural ecosystems in the Asia and Pacific; Social and Environmental System Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Peter Ambenje’s expertise is in Climatology and Data Management and is a contributing author to both the third and Forth IPCC Assessment Reports. He holds a Masters degree in Meteorology and Climatology from the University of Birmigham in UK and has worked for the Kenyan Meteorological Department for over 20 years, Kenya

Dr Samwel Marigi is actively involved in the development of scenarios of climate change and global warming impacts for key socio-economic sectors in Kenya and the surrounding regions. he has published widely in the field of climate change and implications to society and is currently the head of the Climate Change Division within the Kenya Meteorological Department, Kenya

Peter A. Omeny, Meteorologist. Kenya Meteorological Department, Kenya

Dr Carlos Gay Garcia specialises in regional scenarios of climate change, impacts vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, and communication of climate change to policy makers and management of uncertainty; Atmospheric Sciences Centre, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

Prof Ana Rosa Moreno specialises in climate change, human health, air pollution, risk communication, Latin America; Dept. Public Health, School of Medicine, National University of Mexico, Mexico

Dr Abdelkader Allali specialises in coastal processes and zones, freshwater and snow, terrestrial systems, and agriculture and forestry; Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Forestry, Morocco

Mr Om Ratna Bajracharya has conducted field investiagtions of two glacier lakes of Nepal and Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Early Warning Systems (GLOF EWS), and has worked as a co-researcher on glaciological expeditions in Nepal. His experience is in the installation, operation, data processing and analysis of high altitude research stations; Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Nepal

Dr Arun Shrestha, is a Climate Change Specialist whose areas of expertise include climate change, glaciers and glacial hazards, flash flood risk management, atmospheric environment, remote sensing and hydrological modelling. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD), Nepal

Prof. Dr Rik Leemans, specialises in forest dynamics, large-scale vegetation and crop distribution, global environmental databases, terrestrial C cycle and the importance of feedback processes, incorporation of land-use change and other human dimensions into Earth system models, biodiversity, potential mitigation and adaptation options and strategies for environmental change and integrated assessment models for global biodiversity and local/regional ecosystem vulnerability; Environmental  Systems Analysis group, Environmental Sciences Department,  Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Prof. Dr Jef Vandenberghe; Department of Paleoclimatology and Geomorphology Institute of Earth Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Prof. Dr Ir. Wim van der Putten, specialises in soil ecology, functional biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, multitrophic interactions, nematode ecology, plant pathogens in natural vegetation, above-belowground interactions, metabolomics, biological invasions, nature restoration, land use changes; NIOO-KNAW Centre for Terrestrial Ecology, The Netherlands

Prof. Marcel E. Visser, specialises in timing of species migration, climate change, phenology, great tit; NIOO-KNAW Centre for Terrestrial Ecology, The Netherlands

Ir. Arnold J.H. van Vliet, specialises in the scientific and socio-economic aspects of biodiversity and global change; European Phenology Network and the Dutch phenological monitoring Network 'De Natuurkalender', Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Dr Gavin Kenny, specialises in agricultural ecology and climate change; independent researcher, New Zealand

Prof. John E. Hay, specialises in risk-based approaches to addressing climate variability and change, including extreme events; advises and provides technical assistance to developing countries, with a focus on the small island countries of the South Pacific; Principal, JEH+ Ltd. New Zealand, and Visiting Professor, Ibaraki University, Japan

Dr Jim Salinger, specialises in past and current climate trends; Principal Scientist, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand

Dr Lars Hole, specialises in meteorology with research focus on transport of pollutions in air and sea and effects of climate change; Department for Atmosphere and Climate Research at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway

Prof. Anthony Nyong specialises in climate risk assessment and management in the African Sahel; Centre for Environmental Resources and Hazards Research, University of Jos, Nigeria

Dr Rodel Lasco specialises in climate change and land use/cover change; Philippines Programme Coordinator, World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF, Philippines

Dr Zbigniew Kundzewicz, Research Centre of Agricultural and Forest Environment, Poland

Prof. Piotr Tryjanowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Dr Oleg Anisimov, State Hydrological Institute, St.Petersburg, Russia

Sergey Zimov, Head of the Russian North-East Scientific Station, has worked as a scientist in the far north of Siberia for 30 years with an expertise in permafrost study, global carbon budget, palaeontology, Russia

Dr Poh Poh Wong specialises in coasts and beaches of tropical areas, with special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region; Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Dr Guy F Midgley is the Chief Specialist Scientist for the Global Change and BioAdaptation Division, at the Kirstenbosch Research Center, South African National Biodiversity Institute. He contributed to the 2007 report on climate change by the IPCC, as co-ordinating lead author of Chapter 4 in Working Group 2: Ecosystems: Their properties, goods and services. South Africa

Dr Alison Misselhorn specialises in food security, and the closely related issues of vulnerability, adaptation and development - within the context of climate change as an aspect of global change in the developing world; ReVAMP Research Group, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Dr Gina Ziervogel is a geographer by training (BSc at UCT, Honours at Rhodes University and PhD at University of Oxford) and specialises in how to support adaptation to climate change in a development context in Southern Africa. She is a Research Fellow for the Stockholm Environment Institute, Oxford Office and Senior researcher at the Climate Systems Analysis Group, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Prof. Dr Antonio Ruiz de Elvira, is a full Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Alcala. he is also Chair of the Scientific Comittee of the European Climate Forum. Spain

Prof. Andreas Fischlin specialises in modeling of ecosystems, in particular forest ecosystems in a changing climate, the ecology of population cycles, and the development of a methodology for the structured modeling of complex ecological systems; ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Zürich, Switzerland

Prof. Antoine Guisan specialises in spatial predictive modelling of plant and animal distributions; Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Prof. Christian Korner specialises in treeline phenonema and plant species range limits related to temperature; Botanisches Institut - Pflanzenokologie, Universitate Basel, Switzerland

Dr Christophe Lambiel specialises in mountain glaciers in Switzerland as part of the Institute of Geography at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr Christoph Marty specialises in snow climatology in the European Alps. He is a research scientist with the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, Switzerland

Dr Kathy Riklin; Nationalratin, Prasidentin Organe Consultatif sur les Changements Climatiques, Switzerland

Dr Pascal Vittoz specialises in terrestrial ecosystems for plants and vegetation; Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr Anond Snidvongs specialises in the biophysical environment as well as social and economic issues, in South-East Asia; Chulalongkorn University; South-East Asia START Regional Centre, Thailand

Dr Saleem Huq specialises in links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly in developing countries; Head, Climate Change Group, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

Dr Declan Conway specialises in climate variability, climate change and water resources in developing countries, particularly linkages between rainfall variability and fluctuations in water resources during the 20th century, focusing on Egypt, Ethiopia, East Africa and South America; School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK

Dr Sophie des Clers specialises in socio-economic aspects of fisheries management and fishing communities dependent on coastal and marine ecosystems, including adaptation and mitigation of climate change impacts; Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, UK

Dr Mark New specialises in climate change and variability and climate change impacts on water resources; School of Geography, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, UK

Dr Daithi Stone specialises in climate dynamics; Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Oxford University, UK

Dr John Turner specialises in climate change in the Antarctic; British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, UK

Dr Richard Washington specialises in climate variability, seasonal climate prediction and seasonal forecasting in Africa; Oxford University Centre for the Environment, UK

Prof. Dr Paul Epstein, specialises in health impacts of climate change and health applications of climate forecasting and remote sensing; Associate Director of the Health and the Global Environment, Harvard University, USA

Prof. John Harte, specialises in the effects of human actions on, and the linkages among, biodiversity, ecosystem structure and function, and climate; Energy and Resources Group, University of California Berkeley, USA

Dr Henry Huntington, is an independent researcher in Alaska where his activities include reviewing the regulation of subsistence hunting in northern Alaska, documenting traditional ecological knowledge of beluga whales and bowhead whales, examining Iñupiat Eskimo and Inuit knowledge and use of sea ice, and assessing the impacts of climate change on Arctic communities and on Arctic marine mammals. Alaska, USA

Dr Michael MacCracken, specialises in causes of ice ages, numerical modeling of various causes of climate change, sectoral and regional climate impacts, including impacts in the Arctic; Climate Institute, USA

Dr Dena P. MacMynowski, specialises in ecological impacts of climate change; Center for Environmental Science and Policy, Stanford University, USA

Dr Steve McNulty specialises in southern forest response to CO2 enrichment and climate change; USDA-Forest Service Southern Research Station, Raleigh, NC, USA

Dr Patrick Mulholland, specialises in aquatic ecological and biochemistry responses to climate change; Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA

Prof. Steven W. Running studies forest ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains of North America. His interests include snow pack dynamics and seasonal hydrology, ecosystem phenology and growth timing, forest growth and carbon storage, drought impacts, and wildfire disturbances; College of Forestry & Conservation, University of Montana, USA

Prof. Stephen H. Schneider, specialises in food/climate and other environmental/science public policy issues; ecological and economic implications of climatic change; integrated assessment of global change; climatic modeling of paleoclimates and of human impacts on climate; Stanford University; Center for Environmental Science and Policy; USA

Ken Tape, studies terrestrial changes in the Arctic, specifically changes in vegetation, but also changes in permafrost and glaciers; Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Alaska, USA

Prof. Cameron P. Wake specialises in the development of climate records through the recovery and analysis of ice cores and changes in New England's climate and air quality; Climate Change Research Center, University of New Hampshire, USA

Dr Gary Yohe, specialises in coastal zones, including sea level rise and coastal storms; Economics Department, Wesleyan University, USA