UK’s top five most influential climate scientists from University of Exeter

University of Exeter has the joint highest number of climate scientists in the top 100 of any institute in the world

The University of Exeter is home to the UK’s top five most influential climate scientists - the only UK climate scientists to secure places in in the global top 21 - according to a prestigious new list. 

Four climate experts from the University of Exeter, and one who is jointly affiliated with the University and the Met Office, have been ranked as the most influential in their field in the new global Reuters Hot List, published on Tuesday, April 20th 2021.

Each of the five are the only UK scientists ranked in the top 21 global positions - Professor Pierre Friedlingstein is placed 3rd, Professor Stephen Sitch 14th, Professor Richard Betts (jointly affiliated with the Met Office) ranked 17th,  Professor Neil Adger 18th and Professor Peter Cox 21st.

In total, there are 18 Exeter-based climate scientists in the global top 1,000 – six from the University of Exeter, nine from the Met Office, and three with joint-positions with both institutions. 

Professor Tim Lenton (97th) and Professor Stefan Harrison (794) from the University of Exeter, and Professor Peter Stott (138), Professor Adam Scaife (516) who hold joint positions with the University and the Met Office, complete the list.

Overall, the University of Exeter has the joint highest number of climate scientists in the top 100 of any institute in the world, reinforcing its position as being at the forefront of global climate research.

Professor Lisa Roberts, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Exeter said: “We are immensely proud of the outstanding work of our research community in the global climate change .  The city of Exeter, with the University and our partners at the Met Office, is clearly a globally-recognised hub of research and innovation in climate science.

“Moreover, this new list shows that our academic community goes beyond the boundaries of their research to encourage debate and to partner with business and organisations to help foster solutions to the world’s most important societal issue.”

The Reuters Hot list ranks the world’s most influential 1,000 scientists, who are pioneering crucial climate research internationally.

It scores the scientists based on three main criteria - for the number of papers published, the number of citations in academia, and the score based on the wider press, social media and other public forums.

The data is provided through Dimensions, the academic research portal of the British-based technology company Digital Science, which contains hundreds of thousands of papers related to climate science published mostly since 1988.