Edward Hawkins (born 1977) is a Professor of climate science at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, principal research scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), editor of ''Climate Lab Book'' blog and lead scientist for the Weather Rescue

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

project. He is known for his

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz or info viz) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic representation of data and information. It is a particularly efficient way of communicating when the data or information is nume ...

s of

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 ...

for the general public such as

warming stripes Warming stripes (sometimes referred to as climate stripes, climate timelines or stripe graphics) are data visualization graphics that use a series of coloured stripes chronologically ordered to visually portray long-term temperature trends. Wa ...

and

climate spiral A climate spiral (sometimes referred to as a temperature spiral) is an animated data visualization graphic designed as a "simple and effective demonstration of the progression of global warming", especially for general audiences. The original ...

Education

Hawkins was educated at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

where he was awarded a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in astrophysics in 2003 for research supervised by Steve Maddox that investigated

galaxy cluster A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-la ...

ing in large

redshift survey In astronomy, a redshift survey is a survey of a section of the sky to measure the redshift of astronomical objects: usually galaxies, but sometimes other objects such as galaxy clusters or quasars. Using Hubble's law, the redshift can be us ...

Career and research

After his PhD, Hawkins served as a

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several environmental (mainly geog ...

(NERC) advanced

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

in the department of

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

at the

from 2005 to 2013. Hawkins is a professor of climate science at the

, where he serves as academic lead for public engagement and is affiliated with the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). He is a lead for Weather Rescue and Rainfall Rescue, citizen science projects in which volunteers transcribe data from historical meteorological and rainfall records for digital analysis. Hawkins was a contributing author for the

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the fifth in a series of such reports and was completed in 2014.IPCC (2014The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) leaflet/ref> As ha ...

(2014) and was a lead author for the

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the sixth in a series of reports which assess scientific, technical, and socio-economic information concerning climate change. Thre ...

in 2021. On 9 May 2016, Hawkins published his

graphic, which was widely reported as having gone viral. The climate spiral was widely praised, Jason Samenow writing in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' that the spiral graph was "the most compelling global warming visualization ever made". On 22 May 2018, Hawkins published his

data visualization graphic, which has been used by meteorologists in Climate Central's annual # MetsUnite campaign to raise public awareness of global warming during broadcasts on the summer solstice. Hawkins' similar #ShowYourStripes initiative, in which the public could freely download and share graphics customized to specific countries or localities, was launched on 17 June 2019. The warming stripes graphic is used in the logo of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis from 2019 onwards.

Honours and awards

Hawkins' climate spiral design was on the shortlist for the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2016, the design having been featured in the opening ceremony of the August 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Hawkins was awarded the

Royal Meteorological Society The Royal Meteorological Society is a long-established institution that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Associate Fellows can be lay enthus ...

’s Climate Science Communication Prize in 2017. In 2018, Hawkins was awarded the

Kavli Medal The Kavli Medal is the name of two medals awarded biennially by the Royal Society. Royal Society Kavli Medal The Royal Society Kavli Medal is awarded biennially, in odd years, for outstanding achievement in science and engineering in the fields ...

by the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

"for significant contributions to understanding and quantifying natural climate variability and long-term climate change, and for actively communicating climate science and its various implications with broad audiences". In July 2019, Hawkins was included in the ''Climate Home News'' list of ten climate influencers. Hawkins was appointed

Member 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 ...

(MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours "For services to Climate Science and to Science Communication". In June 2021, Hawkins was named in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...

'' "Green Power List" which profiled twenty environmentalists in the UK who are "minds engaging with the world’s biggest problem".

Selected publications

According to Google Scholar his most highly cited publications include: * ''The Potential to Narrow Uncertainty in Regional Climate Predictions'' *''The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: correlation functions, peculiar velocities and the matter density of the Universe'' * ''Decadal Prediction: Can It Be Skillful?'' * ''Global risk of deadly heat''

References

External links

EdHawkins.org
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Ed Climate communication Living people British climatologists Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contributing authors Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors Non-fiction environmental writers People associated with the University of Reading Members of the Order of the British Empire Climate change artists 1977 births