Benjamin David Santer (born June 3, 1955) was a climate researcher at

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now i ...

and former researcher at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

Climatic Research Unit The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. With a staff of some thirty research scientists and s ...

. He retired from the

in 2021 and is now a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

. He also worked at the

Max Planck Institute for Meteorology The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (''Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie''; MPI-M) is an internationally renowned institute for climate research. Its mission is to understand Earth's changing climate. Founded in 1975, it is affiliated w ...

from 1987 to 1992. He specializes mainly in

statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying probability distribution.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of ...

of climate data sets, and detection/attribution of climate change forcings. Since 2012, Santer has been listed on the board of directors of the

National Center for Science Education The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a Nonprofit organization, not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of con ...

Honors

Santer received a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and a 1987 Ph.D. in climatology from the Climatic Research Unit of the

. In 1998 Santer was awarded a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

for research supporting the finding that

human activity Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity ( mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Behavior is driven by genetic and environmental fa ...

contributes to global warming. He has also received the

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of Ernest Lawrence, a scientist who helped elevate United States, American physics to the status of world leader in the field. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an parti ...

and a Distinguished Scientist Fellowship from the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

and the Norbert Gerbier/MUMM award from the

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...

. He ranked twelfth amongst climate scientists in a 2002 assessment of most cited scientists in the field of global warming. In 2024 he received the

Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society. It is presented to individual scientists, who receive a medal. Named in honor of meteorology and oceanography pioneer Carl- ...

of the American Meteorological Society. In 2011, Santer was elected as a fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

and as a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

1995 AR2 Chapter 8

Santer was the convening Lead Author of Chapter 8 of 1995

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 ...

Working Group I Report (AR2 WGI), which addressed the

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

issue. In a June 12, 1996 editorial-page piece in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'',

Frederick Seitz Frederick Seitz (July 4, 1911 – March 2, 2008) was an American physicist, a pioneer of solid state physics, and climate change denier. Seitz was the 4th president of Rockefeller University from 1968 to 1978, and the 17th president of the Nation ...

, chair of the

George C. Marshall Institute The George C. Marshall Institute (GMI) was a nonprofit conservative think tank in the United States. It was established in 1984 with a focus on science and public policy issues and had an initial focus in defense policy. Starting in the late 1980 ...

and

Science and Environmental Policy Project The Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) is an advocacy group financed by private contributions based in Arlington County, Virginia. It was founded in 1990 by atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer. SEPP disputes the prevailing scientific ...

, claimed that alterations made to Chapter 8 of the 1995 IPCC report were made to "deceive policy makers and the public into believing that the scientific evidence shows human activities are causing global warming." Similar charges were made by the

Global Climate Coalition The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) (1989–2001) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and engaged in climate change denial, publicly challenging the science behind global warming ...

(GCC), a consortium of industry interests; specifically, they accused Santer of "scientific cleansing." Santer and 40 other scientists responded to ''The Wall Street Journal'' that all IPCC procedural rules were followed, and that IPCC procedures required changes to the draft in response to comments from governments, individual scientists, and non-governmental organizations. They stated that the pre- and post-Madrid versions of Chapter 8 were equally cautious in their statements; that roughly 20% of Chapter 8 is devoted to the discussion of uncertainties in estimates of natural climate variability and the expected signal due to human activities; and that both versions of the chapter reached the same conclusion: "Taken together, these results point towards a human influence on climate."

Gold Standard Paper

On February 25, 2019, Santer et al. published the paper ''Celebrating the anniversary of three key events in climate change science'' in ''

Nature Climate Change ''Nature Climate Change'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio covering all aspects of research on global warming, the current climate change, especially its effects. It was established in 2011 as the contin ...

'', claiming to have reached the 5-sigma "gold standard level" of statistical proof of human influence in global climate change using three sets of satellite data.Reuters, "Evidence for man-made global warming hits 'gold standard'": scientists, Feb. 25, 2019
/ref>

References and notes

External links

The Many Travails of Ben Santer
Paul D. Thacker, ''Environmental Science & Technology''

* ttps://www.nersc.gov/assets/Annual-Reports/annrep03.pdf National Energy Research Science Computer Center article on Santer (starts page 38)br>Recent (2011) research by Santer on separating signal and noise in atmospheric temperature changes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santer, Benjamin Living people MacArthur Fellows American climatologists Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors 1955 births Alumni of the University of East Anglia Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Meteorological Society

Honors

1995 AR2 Chapter 8

Gold Standard Paper

References and notes

Further reading

External links