Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Previously, he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. He was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC (

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 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 Met ...

) and a co-author of the National Research Council report on

abrupt climate change An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance. The transition rate is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing, though it may ...

Education and awards

He earned a degree in physics (A.B) from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. He was awarded a John Simon

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1996, which was used to launch collaborative work on the climate of early Mars with collaborators in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He is 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 ...

(AGU) and has been named Chevalier de l'

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

by the Republic of France. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 2015 and sits on the Science and Security Board of the ''

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' is a nonprofit organization concerning science and global security issues resulting from accelerating technological advances that have negative consequences for humanity. The ''Bulletin'' publishes conte ...

''. In 2020, Pierrehumbert was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Research

Pierrehumbert's central research interest is how

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 ...

works as a system and developing idealized

mathematical model A mathematical model is an abstract and concrete, abstract description of a concrete system using mathematics, mathematical concepts and language of mathematics, language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed ''mathematical m ...

s to be used to address questions of climate science such as how the earth kept from freezing over: the faint young sun paradox. Pierrehumbert contributes to

RealClimate ''RealClimate'' is a commentary site (blog) on climatology. The site's contributors include climate scientists whose goal is to provide a response to developing stories and a context they feel is sometimes missing in mainstream commentary o ...

and is a strong critic of

solar geoengineering Solar radiation modification (SRM) (or solar geoengineering) is a group of large-scale approaches to reduce global warming by increasing the amount of sunlight that is reflected away from Earth and back to Outer space, space. It is not intended ...

research. He also is very active in the study of the climate of

Exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detec ...

Personal life

Pierrehumbert is married to Janet Pierrehumbert, professor of Language Modeling at the

Selected papers

* Pierrehumbert R.T. 2002:
The Hydrologic Cycle in Deep Time Climate Problems
, ''Nature'', 419, 191–198. * Pierrehumbert R.T. 2003: "Counting the Cost", ''Nature'', 422 (6929), 263. * Goodman, J.C. and R.T. Pierrehumbert 2003:
Glacial flow of floating marine ice in Snowball Earth
, ''J. Geophys. Res.'', 108 (C10), 3308, . * Alley R.B., J. Marotzke, W.D. Nordhaus, J.T. Overpeck, D.M. Peteet, R.A. Pielke Jr., R.T. Pierrehumbert, P.B. Rhines, T.F. Stocker, L. Talley and J.M. Wallace, 2003:
Abrupt Climate Change
, ''Science'', 299, 2005–2010. * Pierrehumbert, R.T. 2004:

, ''Nature'', 429, 646–649. * Pierrehumbert, R.T. 2004:
Warming the world: Greenhouse effect: Fourier’s concept of planetary energy balance is still relevant today
. ''Nature'', 432, 677. * Pierrehumbert, R.T. 2005:
Climate dynamics of a hard snowball Earth
, ''J. Geophys. Res.'', 110 (D01111), .

References

External links

UChicago homepage

Google Scholar page
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Chicago faculty American geophysicists Environmental bloggers MIT School of Engineering alumni Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard College alumni {{climate-bio-stub