Professor Pete Smith, Professor of Soils and Global Change at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen has been named in the Reuters Hot List - a list of the most influential climate scientists in the world today.
Created by news agency Thomson Reuters, the list of 1000 climate scientists are ranked according to the ‘impact they have had on the climate-climate debate, their lives, their work and their influence on other scientists, the public, activists and political leaders.’
Professor Smith is ranked 75th in the world and is the top-ranked climate scientist in Scotland for his work on how global change impacts on ecosystems, soils, agricultural and environmental sustainability.
This recognition follows numerous awards throughout his career, which include a prestigious Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology and Fellowship of the Institute of Soil Scientists since 2015. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, awarded the British Ecological Society Marsh Award for Climate Change Research in 2014 and the Philippe Duchaufour Medal from the European Geosciences Union for ‘distinguished contributions to soil science’ in 2017.
In addition to all of this, Professor Smith is a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). And, since 1996, Professor Smith has served as convening lead author, lead author and author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Professor Smith said: “Climate science is something that we should all take an interest in and responsibility for. I am delighted to be included in this list alongside my colleagues and hope that this continues to raise awareness for a cause that affects us all.”