Gordon McBean is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

climatologist who serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. He is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

and Chair for Policy in the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. Previously he was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Meteorological Service of Canada.

Biography

Professor McBean was born in British Columbia, Canada. He studied

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

and obtained a PhD in physics and

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

(UBC), Vancouver, in 1970. From 1970 to 1988, McBean was a scientist with Environment Canada. In 1988, he became Professor of Geography and Chair of the Atmospheric Sciences Program and in 1992, Professor of Oceanography and Head of the Department of Oceanography. He returned to Environment Canada as Assistant Deputy Minister from 1994 to 2000, responsible for climate, weather and air quality sciences and services in the federal government. In 1995, McBean gave a speech to 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 ...

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 ...

. In 2006, McBean, with Andrew Weaver and Ken Denman, authored an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

, signed by 90 Canadian climate scientists, to

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

calling for an effective national climate change strategy. The letter was a response to an earlier open letter to Harper from 60 scientists (seven of them climatologists, 19 of them Canadians) arguing against the Kyoto accord and questioning its scientific basis. In addition to his involvement with the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, McBean is member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences partnerships committee and since 2014 president of the

International Council for Science The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members ...

(ICSU) (before 2014 member of the environment advisory committee). In 2018, he was professor in the Departments of Geography, Political Science and Physics at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, and is currently Director of Policy Studies at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and Co-Director of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability there. He also acts as a mentor for the Loran Scholars Foundation.

Awards and honours

* MSC Patterson Medal, 1989 * CMOS President's Prize *

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the Ministry (government department), department ...

Jim Bruce Award * McBean has been a long-standing contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organisation that was jointly awarded the

2007 Nobel Peace Prize The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (founded in 1988) and United States former vice president, Al Gore (b. 1948) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate gr ...

together with

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

. * In 2010, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. * In 2011, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario. * In 2015, he received the AGU Ambassador Award and was made a Fellow of the

International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG; , UGGI) is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the scientific study of Earth and its space environment using geophysical and geodetic techniques. The IUGG is a me ...

. * In 2017, he received the International Meteorological Organization Prize, the highest award from the

World Meteorological Organisation The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. The WMO originated from the Interna ...

References

External links

CFCAS writeup on Gordon McBean
{{DEFAULTSORT:McBean, Gordon Canadian climatologists Members of the Order of Ontario Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario Living people University of British Columbia alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors