Myles Allen

Last updated

Myles Allen
Born
Myles Robert Allen

(1965-08-11) 11 August 1965 (age 59) [1]
Farnham, Surrey, England
Education British School in the Netherlands [1]
Alma mater University of Oxford (MA, DPhil)
Known for Climateprediction.net
Spouse
(m. 1994)
[1]
Awards Edward Appleton Medal and Prize (2010)
Scientific career
Fields Climate change
Institutions United Nations Environment Programme
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Oxford
Thesis Interactions between the atmosphere and oceans on time scales of weeks to years  (1992)
Website www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/people/myles-allen OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Myles Robert Allen CBE FRS FInstP (born 11 August 1965) [1] is an English climate scientist. He is Professor of Geosystem Science in the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment, and head of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department. [2] [3]

Contents

Education

Allen was educated at the British School in the Netherlands [1] and the University of Oxford where he was awarded a Master of Arts degree in Physics and Philosophy in 1987 [1] followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1992. [4] He was a student of St. John's College, Oxford. [1]

Career

As well as his position as Professor of Geosystem science at Oxford, he is the Principal Investigator of the distributed computing project Climateprediction.net (which makes use of computing resources provided voluntarily by the general public), and was principally responsible for starting this project. [5] [6] He is the Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative [7] and a Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford. [8]

Allen has worked at the Energy Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [2] He contributed to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Lead Author of the Chapter on detection of change and attribution of causes, [9] and was a Review Editor for the chapter on predictions of global climate change for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and a co-author of the IPCC October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. [10] [11] His research [12] focuses on the attribution of recent climate change and assessing what these changes mean for global climate simulations of the future. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

Allen also provided the technical expertise for the game Fate of the World, which is "a PC strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years". [18] In 2015, he mentioned that carbon capture and storage (CCS) should be made mandatory. [19]

Awards and honours

In 2010, Allen was awarded the Edward Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for "his important contributions to the detection and attribution of human influence on climate and quantifying uncertainty in climate predictions". [20] Allen was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to climate change attribution and prediction and net-zero. [21] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023. [22]

Personal life

Allen married Irene Tracey in 1994 and has three children. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Causes of climate change</span> Effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent global warming

The scientific community has been investigating the causes of climate change for decades. After thousands of studies, it came to a consensus, where it is "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land since pre-industrial times." This consensus is supported by around 200 scientific organizations worldwide, The dominant role in this climate change has been played by the direct emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Indirect CO2 emissions from land use change, and the emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases play major supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud feedback</span> Type of climate change feedback mechanism

Cloud feedback is a type of climate change feedback, where the overall cloud frequency, height, and the relative fraction of the different types of clouds are altered due to climate change, and these changes then affect the Earth's energy balance. On their own, clouds are already an important part of the climate system, as they consist of water vapor, which acts as a greenhouse gas and so contributes to warming; at the same time, they are bright and reflective of the Sun, which causes cooling. Clouds at low altitudes have a stronger cooling effect, and those at high altitudes have a stronger warming effect. Altogether, clouds make the Earth cooler than it would have been without them.

Keith Peter Shine FRS is the Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading. He is the first holder of this post, which was awarded to the university by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temperature record of the last 2,000 years</span> Temperature trends in the Common Era

The temperature record of the last 2,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 170 years at a global scale. Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that "Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely the highest in at least the past 1,300 years." The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century. As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions, using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records, with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century "shaft" appears. Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods.

climateprediction.net BOINC based volunteer computing project researching climate models

climateprediction.net (CPDN) is a volunteer computing project to investigate and reduce uncertainties in climate modelling. It aims to do this by running hundreds of thousands of different models using the donated idle time of ordinary personal computers, thereby leading to a better understanding of how models are affected by small changes in the many parameters known to influence the global climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IPCC Second Assessment Report</span>

The Second Assessment Report (SAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 1995, is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change. The report was split into four parts: a synthesis to help interpret UNFCCC article 2, The Science of Climate Change, Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change, Economic and Social Dimensions of Climate Change. Each of the last three parts was completed by a separate Working Group (WG), and each has a Summary for Policymakers (SPM) that represents a consensus of national representatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan M. Gregory</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate sensitivity</span> Concept in climate science

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of climate change</span>

Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an overall warming trend, changes to precipitation patterns, and more extreme weather. As the climate changes it impacts the natural environment with effects such as more intense forest fires, thawing permafrost, and desertification. These changes impact ecosystems and societies, and can become irreversible once tipping points are crossed. Climate activists are engaged in a range of activities around the world that seek to ameliorate these issues or prevent them from happening.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic analysis of climate change</span> Using economic tools to investigate climate change

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Michael Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the Department of Geosciences, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University. He is the director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Faculty Associate of the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Program and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriele Hegerl</span> German climatologist (born 1962)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon budget</span> Limit on carbon dioxide emission for a given climate impact

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niklas Höhne</span> German researcher

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine heatwave</span> Unusually warm temperature event in the ocean

A marine heatwave is a period of abnormally high sea surface temperatures compared to the typical temperatures in the past for a particular season and region. Marine heatwaves are caused by a variety of drivers. These include shorter term weather events such as fronts, intraseasonal events, annual, and decadal (10-year) modes like El Niño events, and human-caused climate change. Marine heatwaves affect ecosystems in the oceans. For example, marine heatwaves can lead to severe biodiversity changes such as coral bleaching, sea star wasting disease, harmful algal blooms, and mass mortality of benthic communities. Unlike heatwaves on land, marine heatwaves can extend over vast areas, persist for weeks to months or even years, and occur at subsurface levels.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Anon (2023). "Allen, Prof. Myles Robert" . Who's Who (online Oxford University Press  ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U254480.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 "Dr Myles Allen - University of Oxford". Archived from the original on 30 December 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2010. Myles Allen profile at the University of Oxford
  3. The Guardian articles by Allen: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change must keep its eye on the ball; Generals must give us their exit strategy for climate change
  4. Allen, Myles Robert (1992). Interactions between the atmosphere and oceans on time scales of weeks to years. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC   61666921. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.335863.
  5. Stainforth, D. A.; Aina, T.; Christensen, C.; Collins, M.; Faull, N.; Frame, D. J.; Kettleborough, J. A.; Knight, S.; Martin, A.; Murphy, J. M.; Piani, C.; Sexton, D.; Smith, L. A.; Spicer, R. A.; Thorpe, A. J.; Allen, M. R. (2005). "Uncertainty in predictions of the climate response to rising levels of greenhouse gases" (PDF). Nature. 433 (7024): 403–406. Bibcode:2005Natur.433..403S. doi:10.1038/nature03301. PMID   15674288. S2CID   2547937. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2005.
  6. Piani, C.; Frame, D. J.; Stainforth, D. A.; Allen, M. R. (2005). "Constraints on climate change from a multi-thousand member ensemble of simulations" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 32 (23): L23825. Bibcode:2005GeoRL..3223825P. doi:10.1029/2005GL024452. S2CID   56227360. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2012.
  7. "Home". Net Zero Climate. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  8. "Professor Myles Allen". School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  9. Mitchell, J.F.B.; Karoly, D.J.; Hegerl, G.C.; Zwiers, F.W.; Allen, M.R.; Marengo, J. (2001). "Chapter 12. Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes". IPCC Third Assessment Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  10. Summary for Policymakers (PDF), Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), nd, retrieved 8 October 2018, "IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty
  11. Allen, Myles; Dube, Opha Pauline; Solecki, William (7 October 2018). Chapter 1: Framing and Context. Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (Report). Incheon, Republic of Korea: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  12. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=myles+allen Myles Allen in Google Scholar
  13. Allen, M. R.; Ingram, W. J. (2002). "Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle". Nature. 419 (6903): 224–232. Bibcode:2002Natur.419..224A. doi:10.1038/nature01092. PMID   12226677. S2CID   916557.
  14. Stott, P. A.; Stone, D. A.; Allen, M. R. (2004). "Human contribution to the European heatwave of 2003". Nature. 432 (7017): 610–614. Bibcode:2004Natur.432..610S. doi:10.1038/nature03089. PMID   15577907. S2CID   13882658.
  15. Tett, S. F. B.; Stott, P. A.; Allen, M. R.; Ingram, W. J.; Mitchell, J. F. B. (1999). "Causes of twentieth-century temperature change near the Earth's surface". Nature. 399 (6736): 569–572. Bibcode:1999Natur.399..569T. doi:10.1038/21164. S2CID   4431997.
  16. Forest, C. E.; Stone, P. H.; Sokolov, A. P.; Allen, M. R.; Webster, M. D. (2002). "Quantifying Uncertainties in Climate System Properties with the Use of Recent Climate Observations". Science. 295 (5552): 113–117. Bibcode:2002Sci...295..113F. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.297.1145 . doi:10.1126/science.1064419. PMID   11778044. S2CID   5322736.
  17. Allen, M. R.; Stott, P. A.; Mitchell, J. F. B.; Schnur, R.; Delworth, T. L. (2000). "Quantifying the uncertainty in forecasts of anthropogenic climate change". Nature. 407 (6804): 617–620. Bibcode:2000Natur.407..617A. doi:10.1038/35036559. PMID   11034207. S2CID   4426713.
  18. "About Fate of the World". fateoftheworld.net/about. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2011.
  19. "Fossil fuel companies 'should be made to invest in carbon capture and storage'". The Guardian . 2 July 2015.
  20. "Appleton medal recipients". Institute of Physics. p. 1. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  21. "No. 63571". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 2022. p. N8.
  22. "Myles Allen". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 26 May 2023.