John Shepherd (earth scientist)

Last updated

John Shepherd
Born
John Graham Shepherd

(1946-08-24) 24 August 1946 (age 77)
Croydon, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Alma mater University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Physical oceanographer
Institutions
Thesis The proximity effect in superconducting/normal sandwiches  (1971)
Doctoral advisor Brian Pippard
Website

John Graham Shepherd (born 1946) [2] CBE FRS [1] is a British Earth system scientist, Emeritus Professor at University of Southampton, [3] and a former director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. [4] He has worked on a wide range of environment-related topics, including the transport of chemical tracers in the atmospheric boundary layer [5] and in the deep ocean, [6] the management of marine fish stocks, [7] and the dynamics of the Earth system. [8] More recently he led a comprehensive review of geoengineering for the Royal Society. [9] [10] [11]

Contents

Early life and education

Shepherd was born in 1946 [2] in Croydon in south London, and attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School, a grammar school in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He studied Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, initially taking physics, mathematics, chemistry and crystallography before specialising and graduating in theoretical physics in 1967. He remained at Cambridge for doctoral studies in the Cavendish Laboratory supervised by Brian Pippard on superconductivity. [12] [13] [14] He completed his doctorate in 1971 with a thesis on superconductivity. [12] During his time at Cambridge, Shepherd also competed for Pembroke College on the British quiz show University Challenge as part of a team that included the Australian essayist, Clive James. [15]

Career

Immediately following his doctoral studies, Shepherd took a research position with the Central Electricity Generating Board to study atmospheric physics and air pollution. [5] In 1974, he moved to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to undertake research into the marine disposal of radioactive waste. [6] [16] In 1976, his research within MAFF changed direction towards mathematical modelling of fishing fleet operations [7] [17] [18] and fish population dynamics, [19] [20] [21] a focus which continued until the 1990s. During 1978–1979, Shepherd first became a visiting researcher at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University, a sabbatical activity that he later returned to in 1999. [22] Through the 1980s, he rose through the ranks of MAFF, ultimately reaching the position of deputy director in 1989, a role in which he was tasked with the assessment and management of fish stocks, and directly provided advice to MAFF Ministers. During this period, Shepherd also served in a succession of International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) working groups and advisory committees on fisheries matters. [23] [24]

In 1994, Shepherd left MAFF to become the first director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, then known as the Southampton Oceanography Centre, in the Hampshire city of Southampton. [25] The creation of this centre brought together the Natural Environment Research Council's National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) into a single, purpose-built facility, located within the dock area of the city. During his tenure as director, 1994–1999, Shepherd served, in part, to bring together these two formerly separate organisations into a single collaborative institution. At the conclusion of his term as director, Shepherd became Professor of Marine Sciences within the University of Southampton as well as director of the Earth System Modelling Initiative (1999–2006). From 2006, he assumed a part-time role as a professorial research fellow in Earth System Science at Southampton. In parallel, Shepherd became deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (2000–2010), and began annual visits to LDEO as an adjunct senior research scientist (1999–). [22]

Shepherd has served as the member or chair of a number of committees for organisations including NERC, DEFRA, Cefas, DECC and IFREMER. [26] These have largely centred on fisheries, but a number have concerned off-shore operation of oil and gas infrastructures, in particular technology, decommissioning and regulation. Shepherd is a current board member of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, formed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [27] From 2000 to 2002, Shepherd served as president of the Challenger Society for Marine Science. [28]

Awards and honours

In 1999, Shepherd was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, [1] and subsequently served as member of its study into ocean acidification (2005) [29] [30] and as the chair of its study into geoengineering (2009). [9] [10] He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), as well as a Chartered Mathematician (1991). In 2010 was awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to science. [31]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Anon (1999). "Professor John Shepherd CBE FRS". London: royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." -- "Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. 1 2 "SHEPHERD, Prof. John Graham" . Who's Who . Vol. 1998 (online Oxford University Press  ed.). Oxford: A & C Black.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ↑ "John Shepherd MA, PhD, CBE, FRS". University of Southampton. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "Homepage: Professor John Shepherd". National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  5. 1 2 Shepherd, J.G. (1974). "Measurements of the direct deposition of sulphur dioxide onto grass and water by the profile method". Atmospheric Environment. 8 (1): 69–74. Bibcode:1974AtmEn...8...69S. doi:10.1016/0004-6981(74)90114-0.
  6. 1 2 Shepherd, J.G. (1978). "A simple model for the dispersion of radioactive wastes dumped on the deep-sea bed". Mar. Sci. Communic. 4: 293–327.
  7. 1 2 May, R.M.; Beddington, J.R.; Horwood, J.W.; Shepherd, J.G. (1978). "Exploiting natural populations in an uncertain world". Math. Biosciences. 42 (3–4): 219–252. doi:10.1016/0025-5564(78)90097-4.
  8. ↑ Edwards, N.R.; Shepherd, J.G. (2002). "Bifurcations of the thermohaline circulation in a simplified three-dimensional model of the world ocean and the effects of inter-basin connectivity". Climate Dynamics. 19 (1): 31–42. Bibcode:2002ClDy...19...31E. doi:10.1007/s00382-001-0207-7. S2CID   129729452.
  9. 1 2 "Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty". Royal Society. 1 September 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  10. 1 2 Shepherd, J.G.; Working Group on Geoengineering the Climate (2009). Geoengineering the climate: Science, governance and uncertainty (PDF) (Report). Royal Society. p. 98. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  11. ↑ "John Shepherd Biography". noc.ac.uk. National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  12. 1 2 Shepherd, John Graham (1971). The proximity effect in superconducting/normal sandwiches (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  13. ↑ Pippard, A.B.; Shepherd, J.G.; Tindall, D.A. (1971). "Resistance of Superconducting-Normal Interfaces". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 324 (1556): 17–35. Bibcode:1971RSPSA.324...17P. doi:10.1098/rspa.1971.0125. S2CID   202574485.
  14. ↑ Shepherd, J.G. (1972). "Supercurrents through thick clean S-N-S sandwiches". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 326 (1566): 421–430. Bibcode:1972RSPSA.326..421S. doi:10.1098/rspa.1972.0018. S2CID   136973359.
  15. ↑ McCrum, Robert (15 March 2015). "Clive James: 'I've got a lot done since my death'". OurDailyRead. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  16. ↑ Shepherd, J.G. (1975). "A simplified expression for the contributions of radioactive daughters to the effective decay energies of chains". Health Physics. 29 (5): 805–808. PMID   1193905.
  17. ↑ Shepherd, J.G. (1981). "Cautious management of marine resources". Math. Biosciences. 55 (3–4): 179–189. doi:10.1016/0025-5564(81)90094-8.
  18. ↑ Rosenberg, A.A.; Fogarty, M.J.; Sissenwine, M.P.; Beddington, J.R.; Shepherd, J.G. (1993). "Achievable sustainable use of renewable resources". Science. 262 (5135): 828–829. doi:10.1126/science.262.5135.828. PMID   17757341.
  19. ↑ Shepherd, J.G.; Horwood, J.W. (1979). "The sensitivity of exploited populations to environmental noise, and the implications for management". J. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer. 38 (3): 318–323. doi:10.1093/icesjms/38.3.318.
  20. ↑ Shepherd, J.G.; Cushing, D.H. (1980). "A mechanism for density-dependent survival of larval fish as the basis of a stock-recruitment relationship". J. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer. 39 (2): 160–167. doi:10.1093/icesjms/39.2.160.
  21. ↑ Shepherd, J.G.; Pope, J.G.; Cousens, R.D. (1984). "Variations in fish stocks and hypotheses concerning their links with climate". Rapp. P.-v. Reun. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer. 185: 255–267.
  22. 1 2 "JOHN G. SHEPHERD, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist". Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  23. ↑ Report of the Working Group on Methods of Fish Stock Assessments, Copenhagen, 9–16 June 1987 (PDF) (Report). ICES. 1987. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  24. ↑ Report of the Multispecies Assessment Working Group, Copenhagen, 1–8 June 1988 (PDF) (Report). ICES. 1988. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  25. ↑ "Influential Scientists: Professor John Shepherd FRS". National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. 2013. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  26. ↑ Shepherd, John. "Biography, John Shepherd". jgshepherd.com. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  27. ↑ "John Shepherd, PhD". Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  28. ↑ "Past presidents of the Challenger Society". Challenger Society for Marine Science. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  29. ↑ "Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide". Royal Society. 30 June 2005. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  30. ↑ Raven, J.A.; Working Group on Ocean Acidification (2005). Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (PDF) (Report). Royal Society. p. 68. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  31. ↑ "John Shepherd receives CBE for services to science". Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. 2010. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
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