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 ...
mathematical physicist
Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developmen ...
by training. He has spent most of his career working on the dynamics and predictability of weather and climate. Among various research achievements, he pioneered the development of probabilistic
ensemble forecasting
Ensemble forecasting is a method used in or within numerical weather prediction. Instead of making a single forecast of the most likely weather, a set (or ensemble) of forecasts is produced. This set of forecasts aims to give an indication of the ...
techniques for weather and climate prediction (at the Met Office and the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by most of the nations of Europe. It is based at three sites: Shinfield Park, Reading, United Kingdom; Bologna, Italy; an ...
). These techniques are now standard in operational weather and climate prediction around the world, and are central for reliable decision making for many commercial and humanitarian applications.
Early life and education
Palmer was born in
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable ...
Joint Honours Degree
A joint honours degree (also known as dual honours, double majors, or Two Subject Moderatorship) is a specific type of degree offered generally at the Honours Bachelor's degree level by certain universities in Ireland, the UK, Canada, Malta, and ...
in Mathematics and Physics from the
University of Bristol
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
and a
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in General Relativity Theory from the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
Research
Palmer’s research has focussed on the nonlinear predictability and dynamics of the climate system. He co-discovered the world's largest breaking waves, and proposed a nonlinear framework for the regional manifestation of climate change, based on the nonlinear dynamics of quasi-stationary weather regimes. He was among the first to propose the importance of developing unified or "seamless" weather and climate prediction models. Palmer's research is focussed on the development of stochastic parametrisations in weather and climate simulators, and the application of inexact computing techniques for developing ultra-high resolution climate models. Palmer believes strongly that human and computing resources must be pooled internationally to develop reliable climate prediction systems. He remains active in the area of fundamental physics, promoting the synergistic "Cosmological Invariant Set Postulate" as a primitive geometric principle for physics of the large and small.
Career
After a chance meeting with geophysicist
Raymond Hide
Raymond Hide CBE FRS (17 May 1929 – 6 September 2016) was a British physicist, who was a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and, since 2000, senior research investigator at Imperial College, London.
Life
Hide was educated at Per ...
, he became interested in climate and was employed by the Met Office – including a year at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
. In 1986 he joined the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts where he led the newly formed Predictability and Diagnostics Division, where he led the development of the ECMWF medium-range ensemble prediction system and the European DEMETER multi-model ensemble seasonal climate prediction system. In 2010 Palmer became a Professor of Climate Physics at the University of Oxford, being one of the "2010 Anniversary" Royal Society Research Professors, created to celebrate the Royal Society's 350th Anniversary. At Oxford, Palmer is additionally co-director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Modelling and Predicting Climate and is a professorial fellow at Jesus College, Oxford.
Awards and honours
Palmer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2003, One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: and was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
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 ...
(CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to science. Other awards include:
* World Meteorological Organisation Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award (2006)
* American Meteorological Society Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal (2010)
* Institute of Physics Dirac Gold Medal (for theoretical physics) (2014)
* International member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
(2015)
* Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Bristol (2016)
* International member of the Accademia dei Lincei (2017)
*
European Geosciences Union
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has hea ...
Lewis Fry Richardson Medal (for Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences (2018)
* Honorary member of the
American Meteorological Society
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance th ...
(2019)
* International Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences (2019)
* Honorary Member, Royal Meteorological Society (2020)
*Member of the Foundational Questions Institutue (2020)
* International Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2020)