David Fowler, , (born 1 June 1950) is a British environmental physicist, recognized as an authority on

atmospheric pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

. He specializes in

micrometeorology Microscale meteorology or micrometeorology is the study of short-lived atmospheric phenomena smaller than mesoscale, about or less. These two branches of meteorology are sometimes grouped together as "mesoscale and microscale meteorology" (MMM) a ...

, the land-atmosphere exchange of

trace gas Trace gases are gases that are present in small amounts within an environment such as a planet's atmosphere. Trace gases in Earth's atmosphere are gases other than nitrogen (78.1%), oxygen (20.9%), and argon (0.934%) which, in combination, make u ...

es and

particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from su ...

, and the effects of

pollutants A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oi ...

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic character ...

Education and career

Fowler gained a B.Sc. in

environmental physics Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

in 1972, followed by a Ph.D. at the same university in 1976, before moving to the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

(later incorporated into the

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is a centre for excellence in environmental science across water, land and air. The organisation has a long history of investigating, monitoring and modelling environmental change, and its science ma ...

), where he spent the next four decades of his career. He has authored around 250 peer-reviewed papers.

Policy work

Apart from scientific research, Fowler has also worked on the application of air quality science to public policy in both the UK and Europe. He has been a member of around two dozen scientific committees, including the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Global Environmental Research Committee (of which he has been chair since 2011), and the Air Quality Expert Group, of which he is an ad-hoc member. In 2008, Fowler chaired a committee of European air pollution experts to produce a major study of

ground-level ozone Ground-level ozone (O3), also known as surface-level ozone and tropospheric ozone, is a trace gas in the troposphere (the lowest level of the Earth's atmosphere), with an average concentration of 20–30 parts per billion by volume (ppbv), with cl ...

for the Royal Society, which concluded "that existing emission controls will not be sufficient to reduce ozone concentrations to levels acceptable for human health and environmental protection" and called "for renewed global action to address ozone and its precursors".

Awards

Fowler became an honorary professor of the University of Nottingham in 1991, was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

in 1999, and a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

of London in 2002. He was awarded the

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 2005 for services to atmospheric sciences.

Selected publications

* * * * * *

References

External links

* Living people 1950 births English physicists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Nottingham British civil servants Academics of the University of Nottingham Environmental scientists Air pollution in the United Kingdom {{UK-physicist-stub