Will Steffen (born 1947) is an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

. He was the executive director of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

(ANU) Climate Change Institute and a member of the Australian Climate Commission until its dissolution in September 2013. From 1998 to 2004, he was the executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, a coordinating body of national environmental change organisations based in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

.Professor Will Steffen
ANU Climate Change Institute. Retrieved 11 July 2011. Steffen is one of the founding Climate Councillors of the

Climate Council The Climate Council is Australia's leading climate change communications non-profit organisation formed to provide independent, authoritative information on climate change and its solutions to the Australian public. It advocates reducing greenh ...

with whom he frequently co-authors reports and speaks in the media on issues relating to climate change and renewable energy.

Life and career

Steffen completed a BSc in Industrial Chemistry from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

in 1970. The

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

awarded him an MSc in 1972 and a PhD in 1975.Professor Will Steffen
Australian Research Council. He is widely published on climate science. His research interests range over

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

Earth system science Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. In particular, it considers interactions and 'feedbacks', through material and energy fluxes, between the Earth's sub-systems' cycles, processes and "spheres"— atmo ...

issues, with a focus on

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

. He has written on adapting

land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long ...

to climate change, bringing human processes into the modelling and analysis of the Earth system, and the history of and future prospects for the relationship between the natural world and humans. Steffen has also been prominent advocating along with

Paul Crutzen Paul Jozef Crutzen (; 3 December 1933 – 28 January 2021) was a Dutch meteorologist and atmospheric chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for his work on atmospheric chemistry and specifically for his efforts in studyin ...

the concept of the Anthropocene, and initiating along with Johan Rockström an international debate on

planetary boundaries Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch. Crossing a planetary ...

and the "safe operating space" for humanity. Steffen served as science adviser to the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. He has been a member of the advisory board of the

Australian Bureau of Meteorology Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

and worked with the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He was also on an advisory panel in Colorado with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Currently, Steffen is on the Science Advisory Committee of the APEC Climate Centre in Korea. He is honorary professor at the Copenhagen University's Department of Geography and Geology and visiting researcher at the

Stockholm Resilience Centre The Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), is a research centre on resilience and sustainability science at Stockholm University. It is a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swe ...

. He is the chair of the Federal Government's Antarctic Science Advisory Committee, and advises the Australian Government in further roles as scientific adviser to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and as expert adviser to the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. Steffen also sat on the Australian Climate Commission. In 2011, he was the principal author of a government climate report, ''The Critical Decade'', which advocated a tax should be placed on carbon. The Australian Climate Commission was sacked in 2013. Steffen reflects, “I think we were the first definitive action of the Abbott government. They got rid of us and you could probably measure it in hours rather than days.” Steffen, along with other sacked Commissioners such as Prof.

Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator, activist and public scientist. He was awarded Australian of the Yea ...

and Prof.

Lesley Ann Hughes Lesley Ann Hughes is an Australian academic and climate scientist. Hughes is Distinguished Professor of Biology and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Integrity and Development) at Macquarie University. She is also Director, Biodiversity Node, at the N ...

, and CEO

Amanda McKenzie Amanda McKenzie is a public commentator on the climate crisis in Australia. She is the CEO and co-founder of the Climate Council, Australia's leading climate science communications organisation. Previously, McKenzie co-founded the Australian ...

, launched a new independent organisation - the

- in Australia's largest crowdfunder, raising over $1 million in one week. Steffen remains a Climate Councillor with the Climate Council. In 2018 he was an author of the

Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepar ...

published by 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) ...

.IPCC 2018
''Chapter 1: Framing and Context''

Some recent publications

* * Colin N. Waters et al. (2016) ''The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene''. In: ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

'' 351, No. 6269 . * Steffen W et al., (2015) ''Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet''. In: ''

'' 349, No. 6254, pp. 1286-1287, . * * Steffen W, Grinevald J, Crutzen P and McNeill J (2011
"The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives"
''

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Royal Society. It publishes original research and review content in a wide ...

'' 369(1938): 842–867. * Steffen W (ed.) (2010
''Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change''
Csiro Publishing. . * Zalasiewicz J, Williams M, Steffen W and Crutzen P (2010
"The new world of the Anthropocene"
''Environmental Science & Technology,'' 44(7): 2228–2231. * Steffen W (2008
"Looking Back to the Future"
''Ambio'', 37(14): 507–513. * Steffen W, Crutzen P, McNeill J and Hibbard KA (2008
"Stages of the Anthropocene: Assessing the Human Impact on the Earth System"
''American Geophysical Union''
Annual Meeting 2008
abstract #GC22B-01. * Robin L and Steffen W (2007
"History for the Anthropocene"
''History Compass'', 5(5): 1694–1719. * Costanza R, Graumlich L and Steffen W (eds) (2007
''Integrated History and Future of People on Earth''
MIT Press. . * Steffen, W (2005
''Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure''
Birkhäuser. . * Gordon LJ, Steffen W, Jönsson BF, Folke C, Falkenmark M and Johannessen Å (2005
"Human modification of global water vapor flows from the land surface"
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA),'' 102: 7612–7617. * Steffen W, Andreae MO, Bolin B, Cox P, Crutzen PJ, Cubasch U, Nakicenovic N, Talaue-McManus L and Turner II BL (2004
"Group Report: Earth system dynamics in the Anthropocene"
In: Schellnhuber H-J, ''Earth system analysis for sustainability'', pages 313–340, MIT Press, . * Steffen W, Andreae MO, Bolin B, Crutzen PJ, Cox P, Cubasch U, Held H, Nakicenovic N, Scholes R, Talaue-McManus L and Turner II BL (2004
"Abrupt changes: the Achilles heels of the Earth System"
''Environment,'' 46(3): 9–20. * Steffen W and Lambin E (2004
"Earth System Functioning in the Anthropocene: Human Impacts on the Global Environment"
Pages 112–144 in: ''Interactions between global change and human health'', Working group 2004, Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarum, Scripta Varia 106. . * Crutzen P and Steffen W (2003
"How Long Have We Been in the Anthropocene Era?"
''Climatic Change'', Editorial Comment.61(3): 251–257.

Life and career

Some recent publications

Notes

External links