David Stephenson#

Present appointment: Professor in the Statistical Analysis of Weather and Climate.

Education

• 10/1985 – 08/1988 PhD in theoretical particle physics, University of Edinburgh. Thesis title: Non-perturbative field theories. (Supervisor: Prof. P. Higgs).
• 10/1982 – 07/1985 BA (1st Class Honours) in Physics, University of Oxford.
• Oriel College Scholar from 1982-1985.

Appointments

• 04/2007 – present Professor in the Statistical Analysis of Weather and Climate. Director and founder of the Exeter Climate Systems research centre, Mathematics Research Institute, University of Exeter, U.K.
• 06/2004 – present Adjunct Professor at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, Norway.
• 10/2000 – 03/2007 Reader in Statistical Climatology, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, U.K.
• 10/1999 – 09/2000 Lecturer, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, U.K.
• 08/1998 – 09/1999 European Union fellowship, Department of Probability & Statistics, University of Toulouse, France.
• 12/1992 – 07/1998 Visiting Scientist, French National Weather Service (Météo-France), Toulouse, France.
• 09/1991 – 11/1992 European Union fellowship, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, U.K.
• 09/1989 – 08/1991 Visiting Scientist, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), University of Princeton, U.S.A.

Awards and prizes

• 1997 Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, American Geophysical Union.
• 1995 1st Prize in the Seymour Cray computational science competition, France. Awarded for innovative development of coupled ocean-atmosphere models.
• 1985 Oriel college prize for outstanding performance in final examinations.

Professional affiliations

• 1999 – present Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society
• 1999 – present Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society

Research

David Stephenson's research is targeted on the development of novel statistical methodologies in order to provide deeper understanding of climate variations and improve the quality of weather and climate forecasts. He is nationally and internationally renowned for his expertise in three main areas of statistical climatology: time series analysis of climate modes/regimes, the diagnosis of weather and climate extreme events, and the verification and calibration of climate forecasts. David Stephenson's research activities benefit from strong interdisciplinary collaboration with statisticians that he has initiated and developed over recent years. More information on his current research can be found on the Exeter Climate Systems website: http://www.secam.exeter.ac.uk/xcs.

Membership of international committees and expert teams

• 07/2003 – present Member of the World Meteorological Organisation World Weather Research Programme Joint Working Group on Forecast Verification.
• 05/2003 – present Special advisor to the World Meteorological Organisation CLIVAR/CCl Expert Team on Climate Change Detection, Monitoring, and Indices.
• 08/2002 – present Member of the World Meteorological Organisation World Climate Programme Expert Team on Forecast Verification.
• 08/2000 – present International associate of the Norwegian RegClim regional climate change programme.
• 03/2001 – present Corresponding member of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) on climate variability, predictability and climate risks.

Editorial positions

• 01/2004 – present Editor for the Journal of Climate published by the American Meteorological Society. This journal is the leading international journal in climate research having the highest citation impact factor (3.6 in 2003)
• 11/2002 – present Associate Editor for the Brazilian Journal of Meteorology – an international journal published by the Brazilian Meteorological Society
• 01/2001 – present Associate Editor for Meteorological Applications – a leading weather impacts journal published by the Royal Meteorological Society