A leading climate change expert from the University of Aberdeen has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society - a Fellowship of many of the world's most eminent scientists and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.
Professor Pete Smith is Professor of Soils and Global Change at the University, as well as Science Director of the Scottish Climate Change Centre of Expertise (ClimateXChange).
Since 1996, he has served as Convening Lead Author, Lead Author and Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Professor Smith is a global ecosystem modeller with interests in soils, agriculture, food security, bioenergy, greenhouse gases, climate change, greenhouse gas removal technologies, and climate change impacts and mitigation. He was a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2008-2013), and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (since 2008), a Fellow of the Institute of Soil Scientists (since 2015), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (since 2009). He was awarded the British Ecological Society Marsh Award for Climate Change Research in 2014, and the European Geophysical Union Duchaufour Medal for ‘distinguished contributions to soil science’ in 2017.
Professor Smith said: “I am both humbled and delighted to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Success is built on scientific collaborations, and I am very grateful to the environmental modelling team here for their great work, to my collaborators across the world, and for the support I have received from the University of Aberdeen.”
Professor Sir Ian Diamond, Principal and Vice Chancellor at the University of Aberdeen, commented: “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Smith on receiving this honour.
“Pete’s research into climate change is world leading and I am delighted that he has been recognised by the Royal Society.”