Joint Met Office Chair in Climate Change
University of Exeter, UK

Professor Mat Collins is a prominent climate scientist and the Joint Met Office Chair in Climate Change at the University of Exeter, UK. He specializes in the physical science of climate and climate change, particularly in the areas of climate variability, El Niño, monsoons, and atmosphere-ocean interactions.   

His work with complex climate models helps refine predictions of future climate conditions and enhance climate resilience and he has played a pivotal role as a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR5 and IPCC SROCC reports, crucial for informing global climate policy.   

His expertise extends to advising significant environmental initiatives, including the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution Adaptation report, the UK Climate Change Committee, and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.  

In recognition of his impactful research, he was listed among the top 2% of the most cited scientists globally in 2020.  

Personal Chair - Climate System Science, School of Geosciences 
University of Edinburgh, UK 

Prof Gabrielle Hegerl is a distinguished climatologist and holds the Personal Chair in Climate System Science at the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, UK.   

Her research primarily focuses on the causes of climate change and the impacts of extreme weather events, and her work has been instrumental in detecting and attributing anthropogenic climate change, significantly advancing international climate policy.  

Gabi co-leads the World Climate Research Programme's "safe landing climates" initiative and has co-led their Grand Challenge on Extremes and as a coordinating lead author for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, her contributions have been crucial in understanding global climate dynamics.   

Gabi is a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, underscoring her influence and leadership in the field. 

Director of Application Laboratory 
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan 

Prof Swadhin Behera is a renowned expert in global ocean and climate research, recognized for discovering key climate variations such as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the Indian Ocean Subtropical Dipole (IOSD).  

Swadhin led an EU-Japan collaborative project to develop the SINTEX-Frontier coupled GCM on the Earth Simulator, a cutting-edge model for climate predictions on seasonal to decadal scales, whose predictions are integral to outreach programs aimed at societal benefits.  

He is an active member of prominent professional societies, including the American Geophysical Union, the Japanese Oceanographic Society, and the Japan Geoscience Union, reflecting his significant contribution to the field. 

Distinguished Professor of Climate Science
University of California San Diego, USA

Prof Shang-Ping Xie’s research focuses on ocean-atmosphere interactions and their impact on climate formation and variability, and he is renowned for formulating the wind-evaporation-sea surface temperature (WES) feedback mechanism, the Indian Ocean capacitor effect, and the "warmer-get-wetter" concept for rainfall changes due to global warming. His discoveries include what Science magazine termed the world's longest island wake.  

As a lead author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, his work has significantly contributed to climate science and his achievements have earned him numerous honors, including the Sverdrup Gold Medal, the Meteorological Society of Japan Medal, and the National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award.   

He is a fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.