Professor Andrew J. Watson FRS
(email: andrew.watson@exeter.ac.uk)
BIOGRAPHICAL
Education
1975-78 PhD., University of Reading, Department of Engineering and Cybernetics.
1972-75 BSc (Hons 1st) physics, Imperial College, London.
Positions held
2013- Professor, College of Life and Environmental Sciences,
University of Exeter
2009- Royal Society Research Professor
2008-2015 Member of the Natural Environment Research Council
2007-2015 Director, Laboratory for Global Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry, UEA
1996-2010 Professor, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich
1988-1995 Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Research scientist/project leader
1981-1988 Marine Biological Association, Plymouth; Research Scientist
1978-1981 Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
Visiting scientist
1985, 1987 Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, New York
2000 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, (Woods Hole, Mass.)
HONOURS
2003 Fellow of the Royal Society
2003 European Geophysical Union Fridtjof Nansen medal for distinguished research in oceanography
2009 Plymouth Marine Sciences medal
RESEARCH
FIELDS OF INTEREST: Global biogeochemical cycles, climate, and the interactions between them (in particular, processes influencing atmospheric O2 and CO2). Evolution and present day composition of the atmosphere and oceans. Co-evolution of life and the global environment. Ocean circulation and mixing. Application of tracer techniques to ocean physics and biogeochemical processes.
INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES, COMMITTEES ETC
Member, Bjerknes Climate Centre Science Advisory Committee, Bergen, Norway, 2001 -.
European Union Carbo-Ocean integrated project, leader and SSC 2005-
Nansen medal committee, European Geosciences Union, 2010-
Program evaluation committee, Potsdam Institute for Climate Research (2007)
Member, organizing committee, 7th International Carbon Dioxide Conference (Jena, Germany, 2009)
Chair, IGBP/SCOR SOLAS task force, 1997-1998.
SCOR-IOC panel on carbon dioxide and the oceans, 1991- 2003 (Chair 1996-2000)
Member, France-JGOFS Committee and PROOF committee, 1994-2000
Member, International JGOFS SSC, 1996-2000
Chair, SOLAS international task group, 1997
Organizing committee, 5th International CO2 conference, Cairns, Austraila, 1997
Organizing committee, 6th International CO2 conference, Sendai, Japan, 2001.
Biogeochemistry committee of the European Geosciences Union, 2002 – 2006
NATIONAL ACTIVITIES, COMMITTEES ETC:
NERC council member 2008-
UK National committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, 2003-.
Leverhulme Trust, Philip Leverhulme Prize, Earth Sciences Panel, 2001-
Geological Society of London Earth systems special interest group committee, 2000-
National Oceanography centre association steering committee 2010-
Royal Society Sectional committee 5 (Geosciences) 2006 – (Chair 2008/9)
Royal Society Geo-engineering working group (2008/9)
Royal Society committees:
Travel grants committee 2004-
Research grants committee 2005- (Chair 2007/8).
Royal Society ocean acidification working group, 2006
NERC strategy development panel, 2006.
NERC Rapid Climate Change Science Steering Committee, 2001-2004
NERC QUEST working group, 2002-2003.
NERC Environmental Systems Science Centre Steering Committee, 2002-2007
UK committee for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, 1989-1993
JOURNAL EDITORSHIP
Guest editor, Phil Trans. Roy. Soc A. Special issue on the Southern Ocean, Carbon and Climate, 2013.
Associate Editor, Marine Chemistry (1990-2011)
Associate Editor, Biogeosciences (2004-2006)
Guest editor, Deep Sea Research; series II, special issue on the Southern Ocean iron enrichment
experiment. (May 2001).
SELECTED SPECIAL LECTURES, INVITED CONFERENCE KEYNOTES AND CONTRIBUTIONS – 2007-2014
Keynote, ESA-SOLAS conference on earth observations for ocean-atmosphere interactions science, September 2014, Frascati, Italy
Keynote, “Life of the Earth”, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, April 2014
George Benton Lecturer, October 2012, Johns Hopkins University
Public lecture, Bjerknes Centre for Climate research, September 2012, “Earth Revolutions, lessons for our future from the Earth’s deep past”
Invited talk, Planet under Pressure conference, “Variability and trends in the Ocean sink for CO2” March 2012.
Invited talk, Science of the Blue Planet meeting, London December 2011.
Invited talk, Conference on the science and economics of climate change, Downing College Cambridge, “Effects of CO2 on climate”. May 2011.
Invited talk, “The ocean sink for CO2: why does it change and how can we monitor it”, 8th International carbon dioxide conference, Jena, September 2009.
Invited talk, Royal Society discussion meeting on “Greenhouse Gases, setting the agenda to 2030”, February 2010.
Invited talk, Marine Biological Association 125th anniversary meeting, London, September 2009
Plymouth Annual Marine Sciences lecture, September 2009
EPICA open science conference, Venice, November 2008: “Feedback dominates Quaternary climate change”.
International workshop and conference on Network Science 2008 : “Crises in Earth history”
New writing worlds conference, Norwich 2008.”The environmental crisis – a lesson from Earth history”.
Conference on effects of Climate change on the oceans, Gijon, Spain, 2008: “The Changing uptake of CO2 by the North Atlantic Ocean”
Leverhulme Trust/ Cambridge University symposium on climate past, present, future (2008) “Ocean circulaton impacts on glacial-interglacial CO2”
Geological Society of London Biecentennial conference, London 2007: “How we came to be here: the major transitions in Earth history”.
Liverpool Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory: Challenger Lecture, 2007 “ How dependable is the ocean sink for CO2, and can we monitor it?”.
SOLAS open science conference, Xiamen, China, 2007: “Towards near-real-time monitoring of the ocean sink for atmospheric CO2”
Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft annual meeting, Regensburg, 2007: “Ocean mixing: why it’s important and how it’s measured
Society for environmental toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) U. Newcastle, 2006: “Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric CO2”
Woods Hole symposium on Iron fertilization, 2007 “Some (other) possible climate and biogeochemical effects of iron fertilization”
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 2007: “Carbon dioxide: key to past and future climate change”.