Trevor John McDougall is an Australian physical oceanographer specialising in ocean mixing and the

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed b ...

seawater Seawater, or sea water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximat ...

. He is Emeritus Scientia Professor of Ocean Physics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and is past president of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.

Education

After attending Unley High School in Adelaide, South Australia, McDougall went to St Mark's College (University of Adelaide) and graduated from the University of Adelaide in Mechanical Engineering in 1973. He obtained a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in 1978 from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and a Graduate Diploma in Economics from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in 1982.

Research and career

McDougall undertook his PhD studies in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

of the

where he was supervised by Professors Stewart Turner and Paul Linden. In 1978 he returned to Australia on a Queen's Fellowship in Marine Science at the Research School of Earth Sciences,

(ANU). After five years at ANU he was appointed to

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

in Hobart as a physical oceanographer. Since 2012 he has been Scientia Professor of Ocean Physics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. McDougall's research in physical oceanography has provided insight to how

mixes under different conditions, which is important for understanding

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." , "Intellectual property rights" The ocean and the atmosphere play roughly equal roles in transporting heat from the equatorial region to the poles, and McDougall's research is concerned with how the ocean reduces the equator-to-pole temperature differences, thus making Earth habitable. McDougall is known for developing, together with David Jackett, an algorithm for defining neutral density surfaces. These are the surfaces along which swirling ocean eddies — that are 10–500 kilometres wide and persist for many months — mix. The rate of turbulent mixing in the ocean is a factor of ten million times stronger along "density" surfaces than in the direction across these surfaces. The accurate modelling of the ocean’s role in climate relies on being able to accurately define and evaluate these surfaces. McDougall has also made significant contributions to incorporating the concepts of mixing and heat into ocean models. He was president of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics from 2019-2023 and is past president for 2023-2027. He chaired the working group of SCOR and IAPSO that developed the international standard definitions of the thermodynamic properties of seawater, humid air, and ice ( TEOS-10, Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater - 2010), which were adopted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2009.

Awards and honours

McDougall was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012. He is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1997), the

(2007), the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (2004), the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based not-for-profit learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, physics research, research and applied physics, application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide ...

(UK) (2012), the Royal Society of New South Wales (2015), 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 ...

(2018), and th
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (2023)
His other awards include:
Alfred Wegener Medal
2025, awarded by the European Geosciences Union, ''For outstanding contributions to ocean science that have fundamentally changed how we understand the ocean and its role in shaping the Earth’s climate''
2023 NSW Scientist of the Year
awarded by the Premier of New South Wales, Australia. * Prime Minister's Prize for Science, 2022, ''For his discovery of four new ocean mixing processes and his work to define the thermodynamic properties of seawater'' * Prize of Excellence
Werner Petersen Foundation
Germany, 2018. *

Companion of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in 2018 for ''eminent service to science, and to education, particularly in the area of ocean thermodynamics, as an academic, and researcher, to furthering the understanding of climate science, and as a mentor of young scientists''.
New South Wales Premier's Prize for Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Physics, 2017
* John Conrad Jaeger Medal 2015, awarded by the Australian Academy of Science. * Henry Houghton chair for visiting senior earth scientists, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015 * Australian Laureate Fellowship, 2015, awarded by the Australian Research Council
Royal Society of Tasmania Medal
2013, awarded by the Royal Society of Tasmania. *

Prince Albert I Medal The Prince Albert I Medal was established by Prince Rainier of Monaco in partnership with the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans. The medal was named for Prince Albert I and is given for significant work in the ph ...

, 2011, awarded by the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) of the IUGG ''for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the physical and/or chemical sciences of the ocean''. * Anton Bruun Medal, awarded by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, 2009. * A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences, presented by the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

, 2005. * Centenary Medal, 2001.It's an Honour
Centenary Medal, 1 January 2001, Citation: ''For service to Australian society and science in marine science.'' ''For service to Australian society and science in marine science.''
M. R. Banks Medal
awarded by the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1998.Humboldt Prize, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, 1997. * David Rivett Medal, awarded to a

Scientist who is less than 40 years old, 1992.
Frederick White Prize
awarded by the Australian Academy of Science, 1988. * J. T. Knight Prize, 1976, awarded by the

. * South Australian Engineering Design Award, wit
Dr Garry L. Brown
awarded by Engineers Australia, 1975.

References

External links

Trevor McDougall's UNSW webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDougall, Trevor Australian oceanographers Australian fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of New South Wales Fellows of the Institute of Physics Humboldt Research Award recipients Academic staff of the University of New South Wales Fluid dynamicists Physical oceanographers 1952 births People from Hobart Living people Scientists from Adelaide Academics from Sydney Australian National University alumni University of Adelaide alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge CSIRO people Companions of the Order of Australia Fellows of the American Geophysical Union People educated at Unley High School