Dr. Gordon McBean of Western University - Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction

Biography:

Professor Gordon McBean is in the Department of Geography, Western University and is Director of Policy, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and was Co-Director of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (2012-15). He came to Western in 2000 as a Professor of Geography and Political Science and has been a Professor Emeritus since 2015.  Since his appointments to ICLR and Western, he has focused on science and policy issues of climate change, disaster risk reduction and broader environmental issues.  From 1994 to 2000, he was the Assistant Deputy Minister, Environment Canada, responsible for weather, climate and air quality sciences and services, including advising Ministers for Kyoto Protocol and related issues.  Previously, he was Professor, Atmospheric-Oceanic Sciences, University of British Columbia (1988-94) and Senior Scientist in Environment Canada – when his research focused on the physics of the atmosphere-ocean systems.    Internationally, he was President, International Council for Science (2014-18) and, as such, was the lead of the S&T Major Group for the UN negotiations leading to the SDGs, Sendai Framework and Paris Agreement.  He was also Co-Chair, Future Earth Governing Council (2016-18) and Chair, Science Committees for Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (2006-11) and World Climate Research Programme (1988-94) and President, Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (2000-11) and President, Global Change START, Environmental Research Capacity Enhancement in Africa and Asia (2009-15).  He has been a lead author in IPCC Reports, including the Special Report on Climate Extremes. Throughout his career, he has emphasized the communication of scientific information to the public, policy, private and other sectors of society.    He is a: Member, Orders of Canada and Ontario; Fellow: Royal Society of Canada, American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society; and was awarded: 2017 International Meteorological Organization Prize; 2015 University of British Columbia Alumni Award of Distinction; 2015 American Geophysical Union Ambassador Award; and 2015 American Meteorological Society Cleveland Abbe Prize; and shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, for his contributions to the IPCC.  He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (BSc – Physics; PhD, Physics and Oceanography) and McGill University (MSc, Atmospheric Science).