Andrew John Pitman is a British-Australian

atmospheric scientist Atmospheric science is the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study ...

. He was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

in 1964 and educated at

Liverpool University The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the de ...

(B.Sc. Hons and Ph.D.). He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Leadership (Higher Education) from

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

. In 2002 Pitman became a professor at

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, moving to

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

in 2007. He is currently the Director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. Prior to this, Pitman was the Director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (2011 - 2017). He won the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographical Society's Priestly Medal for excellence in Atmospheric Science Research in 2004 and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographical Medal in 2009. He contributed to the Copenhagen Diagnosis which was shortlisted for a 2010 Eureka Prize and won the 2010 Future Justice Prize. He was shortlisted for the 2017 and 2018 Eureka Prizes for Science leadership. He won the New South Wales' NSW Climate Scientist of the year in 2010. In January 2019 Pitman was made an Officer of the
Order of Australia
(AO) "for distinguished service to science as a leading researcher, particularly of climate systems and the environment". In December 2019 Pitman was awarded the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in Victoria, Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (found ...

's Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research. He was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

in May 2021.

Research interests

Pitman has a long history of working on land surface processes for

climate models Numerical climate models (or climate system models) are mathematical models that can simulate the interactions of important drivers of climate. These drivers are the atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. Scientists use climate models to stu ...

. He has worked on improving how hydrology, vegetation and land cover change is represented in climate models, and the global and regional impacts of land cover change. He has interests in

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, 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 meteoro ...

extremes and how these are likely to change in the future.

Positions held

Pitman currently holds the following positions: * Director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, hosted by the

* Director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, hosted by the

(contributory to the setting up of the

Climate Change Research Centre The Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) is a research initiative established in 2007 at the University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ...

). * Former Convenor of the Australian Research Council Research Network for Earth System Science * Former Editor of the Journal of Climate * Former Chair of the

World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is an international programme that helps to coordinate global climate research. The WCRP was established in 1980, under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Inte ...

’s committee on Global Land Atmospheric System Study * Member of the Australian Academy of Science's committee on Earth Systems Science * Member of the advisory board of the Risk Frontiers Natural Hazards Research Centre. Pitman also served as a lead author of Working Group 1 of the

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World M ...

2005 and 2007 and was a Review Editor in the last assessment.

Selected publications

A full list is available at:http://www.researcherid.com/rid/A-7353-2011 or ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0604-3274

References

British climatologists Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors Academic staff of the University of New South Wales Living people Alumni of the University of Liverpool Scientists from Bristol Macquarie University alumni Academic staff of Macquarie University Officers of the Order of Australia Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science {{Climate-bio-stub