John Francis Brake Mitchell

OBE 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 ...

FRS (born 7 October 1948) is a British climatologist and climate modeller. He studied Applied Mathematics at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

, graduating in 1970 and staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973. In 1978, he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the

Met Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...

's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010. For many years he was the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming. He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second. He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/

CLIVAR CLIVAR (climate variability and predictability) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme. Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales, identify the physical pr ...

Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008. In 2014 he took a part-time position as Principal Research Fellow, advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and also became a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading. Mitchell was awarded the

in the

2001 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2001 was announced on 16 June 2001 for the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland), New Zealand (4 June), Australia (11 June), Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Sai ...

Awards

*2011

Symons Gold Medal The Symons Gold Medal is awarded biennially by the Royal Meteorological Society for distinguished work in the field of meteorological science. It was established in 1901 in memory of George James Symons, a notable British meteorologist. Recipients ...

*2004

Hans Oeschger Medal The Hans Oeschger Medal is an award bestowed by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) to recognise scientists who have made "outstanding achievements in ice research and/or short term climatic changes (past, present, future)." The award was establis ...

*1997/8 Shared the Norbert Gerbier-Mumm Prize with other colleagues.

References

1948 births Living people Alumni of Queen's University Belfast British climatologists Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors Academics of the University of East Anglia {{climate-bio-stub