NERC appoints new Chief Executive
22 November 2011
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills Vince Cable today announced the appointment of Professor Duncan Wingham as Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
Professor Wingham will take up the post from 1 January 2012. His appointment is for four years.
Ed Wallis, Chairman of NERC, said, "I am delighted to welcome Professor Duncan Wingham as the new Chief Executive of NERC. Duncan's international scientific contribution and reputation, strategic science leadership and vision make him ideally suited to drive forward the delivery of NERC strategy.
"He has demonstrated his wealth of knowledge across the environmental sciences as the current Chair of our Science & Innovation Strategy Board, and will lead NERC to the next stage in our strategic development."
Professor Wingham has been linked closely to NERC for very many years. He was founder and Director of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling (CPOM) from 2000 to 2005, which among other things discovered the widespread mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its origin in accelerated ocean melting.
He is currently Chairman of NERC's Science & Innovation Strategy Board and, since 2000, the Lead Investigator of the European Space Agency's CryoSat and CryoSat-2 satellite missions.
Commenting on his appointment, Professor Wingham said, "It is an honour to be offered the role of NERC Chief Executive. Environmental science lies increasingly at the heart of many of the challenges and opportunities that face us today, and NERC must continue to play a leading role in developing this science, and ensuring the widest possible impact of its work. I am very much looking forward to the exciting possibilities and challenges that lie ahead."
For full details of the appointment, please see the press release from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills.
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: 29/11
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