Exeter researcher wins Humboldt Research Award
A University of Exeter climate scientist has won a Humboldt Research Award.
Professor Stephen Sitch, Exeter’s Chair in Climate Change, is an expert in Earth System Science, and his research focuses on the role of vegetation in the climate system.
The Humboldt award, given to internationally leading researchers in recognition of their academic record, includes €60,000 and an invitation to conduct a research project in Germany.
Professor Sitch said: “I am absolutely delighted and honoured to receive the Humboldt Research Award and am really excited to work on new research projects on the regional and global carbon budgets with colleagues at the Max Planck for Meteorology in Hamburg, and other research institutions in Germany.”
With over 30 years of research experience, Professor Sitch’s work has included the development of the Lund-Potsdam-Jena (LPJ) model, the world’s most highly cited Dynamic Global Vegetation Model.
He was theme leader for plant physiology (2009-2011), vegetation dynamics and disturbance (2011-2014) and community experiments of the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) the land component of the Hadley Centre climate model (UKESM).
He had published extensively on plant physiology, vegetation dynamics, biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem-atmosphere interactions.
He co-leads TRENDY, the international activity providing land flux estimates for the annual Global Carbon Budget, and the REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECCAP) synthesis project.
