John Francis Brake Mitchell

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FRS (born 7 October 1948) is a British

climatologist Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospheric ...

and

climate model 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 st ...

ler. He studied Applied Mathematics at

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, graduating in 1970 and staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973. In 1978, he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the

Met Office The Met Office, until November 2000 officially the Meteorological Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather and climate service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and ...

Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research The Met Office Hadley Centre — named in honour of George Hadley — is one of the United Kingdom's leading centres for the study of scientific issues associated with climate change. It is part of, and based at the headquarters of the Met O ...

. He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010. For many years he was the most cited scientist regarding the topic of

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 ...

. He was a convening lead author for the first and third

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 reports and lead author for the second. He was also chair of 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 ...

JSC/

CLIVAR CLIVAR (climate and ocean: variability, predictability and change) is one of six projects of the World Climate Research Programme. Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scale ...

Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008. In 2014 he took a part-time position as Principal Research Fellow, advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and also became a visiting professor at the University of Reading. Mitchell was awarded the

in the

2001 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2001 was announced on 16 June 2001 for the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland), New Zealand (4 June), Australia (11 June), Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Sa ...

Awards

*2011

Symons Gold Medal The Symons Gold Medal is awarded biennially by the Royal Meteorological Society for distinguished work in the field of meteorological science. It was established in 1901 in memory of George James Symons, a notable British meteorologist. Recipient ...

*2004

Hans Oeschger Medal The Hans Oeschger Medal is an award bestowed by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) to recognise scientists who have made "outstanding achievements in ice research and/or short term climatic changes (past, present, future)." The award was establis ...

*1997/8 Shared the Norbert Gerbier-Mumm Prize with other colleagues.

References

1948 births Living people Alumni of Queen's University Belfast British climatologists Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors Academics of the University of East Anglia {{climate-bio-stub