In this blog, Professor Rowan Sutton writes about his first month here at the Met Office as he takes up the role of Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre.
I am writing this blog at the end of my fourth week working at the Met Office. I was asked by my colleague, Oak Wells, whether I felt like I was being continually sprayed with a fire hydrant – and this isn’t a bad simile. There has certainly been a lot to assimilate, and this will clearly be the case for some time yet. But it has been very enjoyable. Colleagues, new and old, have been very welcoming, and it’s been great to hear about all the fascinating work going on in all corners of the Met Office. And there are a lot of corners!
A passion for climate science
I have spent most of my career in the academic world, much of it based at the University of Reading, working within and for NERC’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). I have a passion for climate science and its critical role in helping society address the urgent challenges of climate change. My personal research has focused especially on the role of the oceans in climate variability and change, predictability and prediction.
At Reading, I initially held a research fellowship and later became Director of Climate Science for NCAS. I have been involved in a wide range of international activities including serving as a Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, and recently as Co-Chair of the World Climate Research Programme Lighthouse Activity on Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change. Two years ago, I took on a new part-time role as Research Dean for Environment, working with Tom Oliver, an ecologist. We worked together to develop and promote Reading’s diverse portfolio of research relevant to sustainability – driving the message that meeting the challenges of sustainability needs everyone.
Throughout my career, I have collaborated with Met Office colleagues and more recently, I have come to learn more about the work of the Met Office Hadley Centre through my role as Chair for the Science Review Group.
I led an international academic panel to independently review climate research, underpinned by the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and advise government stakeholders on the quality, robustness and relevance of these science outputs.
A champion for climate science
And now I have the honour and responsibility to serve as Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre. What will be my approach to this role? In broad terms, our ambition must be for the Met Office Hadley Centre to continue to be recognised as an international leader in climate science and its applications to policy and decision-making. Advancing climate science is essential because there remain fundamental gaps in our knowledge about how climate is changing and how it will change in the future, and these gaps are key obstacles to effective adaptation and mitigation. Without climate science we are driving planet Earth into the fog. So, my first goal is to be a champion for climate science.
In addition, we must focus our efforts in those areas where the Met Office has unique strengths. These strengths relate especially to our capabilities for monitoring and modelling climate and Earth System change. We must continue to push the frontiers of these capabilities, so that they remain world leading. I am also particularly interested in the opportunities to better combine observations and models to advance the science and inform decision making.
In a fast-changing world we must be rapidly responsive to new opportunities. Of course, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning stands out as a key area of opportunity at this time, and it’s been great to hear of the exciting work in this field already underway at the Met Office.
Partnerships are vital. The urgent challenges of climate science and climate change are far too large for any one organisation, so ensuring that we have the right partnerships in place, and are making the most of these, must also be a high priority for us all.
I still have a lot to learn about the work of the Hadley Centre and the wider Met Office, about changing customer needs and seeking and making the most of many new opportunities. All whilst I attempt to manage the continued spray from that fire hydrant.