Tom Michael Lampe Wigley is a climate scientist at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

. He is also affiliated with the

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a US nonprofit consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities providing research and training in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmosph ...

(UCAR). He was named a

fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

(AAAS) for his major contributions to

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

and

carbon cycle The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major compon ...

modeling and to climate data analysis, and because he is "one of the world's foremost experts on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and one of the most highly cited scientists in the discipline." His h-index (April 2019) is 107, one of the highest in the discipline. He contributed to many of the reports published by the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...

(the work of the IPCC, including the contributions of many scientists, was recognised by the joint award of the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

). Wigley was educated as a mathematical physicist and earned his doctorate at the

in Australia. He served as director of the Climatic Research Unit at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1993. In 1993 he went on to the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundatio ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Colora ...

, where he was appointed a senior scientist in 1994. He subsequently moved to the University of Adelaide where he currently (2014) holds a Professorial Fellowship. His published papers include the first paper to demonstrate 20th century warming using both land and marine data, the first paper to include the effects of aerosol cooling on projections of future climate change, the first paper to provide realistic scenarios for the stabilization of atmospheric , and the first paper to use pattern-based methods to identify a significant human influence on the climate. Wigley has also published a number of highly cited papers in aqueous geochemistry, including a now-standard method for carbon dating of groundwater. Wigley has argued in the popular media that the

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...

has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing

greenhouse emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and ...

through the use of renewable technologies alone, and argued that any realistic portfolio must include significant contributions from nuclear energy. He has also pointed out that "the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much, much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past." In 2013, with other leading experts, he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers, which stated that "continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity's ability to avoid dangerous climate change."

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wigley, Tom Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian climatologists Academics of the University of East Anglia Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science National Center for Atmospheric Research faculty University of Adelaide faculty Fellows of the American Meteorological Society