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New appointment to NERC

12 May 2009

Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, has announced the appointment of Professor Julia Slingo, OBE, to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds world-class science, in universities and its own research centres, that increases knowledge and understanding of the natural world. It is tackling major issues such as climate change, the increasing pressures on our natural resources, and environmental influences on human health. NERC receives around £400m a year from the government's science budget, which it uses to fund and manage independent research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. It also generates external income of about £50m from industry, government departments and other bodies.

Council members have corporate responsibility for all NERC's actions and those of its staff. They decide issues such as corporate strategy, key strategic objectives and targets, and major decisions involving the use of financial and other resources.

Ed Wallis, Chairman of NERC, said, "Julia Slingo has been an associate of NERC for many years and has a broad knowledge of its business. She brings a great deal of experience that will help NERC to shape its future strategic objectives. One of our research priorities is the impact of climate change on the environment, on health and on society. Julia's knowledge of climate science, and its application to society's needs, will be a welcome aid to our decision making in this area."

Professor Julia Slingo was appointed as the Met Office Chief Scientist in February 2009. Prior to taking up that post she spent seven years as director for climate research at NERC's National Centre for Atmospheric Science, based at the University of Reading. In 2006 she founded the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at Reading.

Professor Slingo began her career in climate modelling and research at the Met Office in 1972. Between 1981 and 1990, she worked at the European Centre for Medium Range Forecasting in the UK and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the USA. She has served on many national and international committees and in 2007 was appointed to the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme. In 2008 she became the first woman President of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Her personal research addresses problems in tropical climate variability, its influence on the global climate, its role in seasonal to decadal climate prediction, and its response to climate change. Increasingly her research considers the multi-disciplinary aspects of the impacts of climate variability and change on crops and water resources, and the need to improve the representation of weather systems and rainfall distribution in climate prediction models.

Professor Slingo succeeds Professor John Mitchell, OBE, as the Met Office representative on the Council. Her appointment runs from 1 May 2009 for four years.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Press release: 12/09