Jonathan Shanklin is a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

who has worked at the

British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...

since 1977. Together with

Joe Farman Joseph Charles Farman CBE (7 August 193011 May 2013) was a British geophysicist who worked for the British Antarctic Survey. Together with Brian Gardiner and Jon Shanklin, he published the discovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica, having us ...

and Brian G. Gardiner he discovered the "Ozone Hole" in the 1980s. Shanklin has described his role at the BAS as being that of a "general dogsbody" at the time of the discovery of the "ozone hole". He calibrated an instrument called the

Dobson Ozone Spectrophotometer The Dobson spectrophotometer, also known as Dobsonmeter, Dobson spectrometer, or just Dobson is one of the earliest instruments used to measure atmospheric ozone. History The Dobson spectrometer was invented in 1924 by Gordon Dobson. A histor ...

which provided data on atmospheric ozone. In an article discussing the discovery, the BBC quotes him as saying

Perhaps the most startling lesson from the ozone hole is just how quickly our planet can change. Given the speed with which humankind can affect it, following the precautionary principle is likely to be the safest road to future prosperity.Richard Black (2010)
Deep reflections on the ozone story
/ref>

Shanklin maintains th
ozone pages
at BAS. He plays cricket, is a

bell-ringer A bell-ringer is a person who rings a bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularly those with an adv ...

, an active local naturalist and is a keen amateur astronomer, being Director of the

British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...

's Comet Sectio

In December 2020 it was announced that the

UK Antarctic Place-names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

had named a glacier on the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...

after Shanklin, in part to mark the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the continent.

References

Living people People from Wrexham 1953 births Alumni of the University of Cambridge {{Climate-bio-stub