A LEADING climate scientist is launching a new scheme aimed at boosting collaboration on climate and weather research between the UK and Japan.
Last month, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins was jointly awarded the 2024 Japan Prize – one of the world’s leading prize for scientific achievement, ranking alongside a Nobel Prize. But instead of keeping the funds to himself, he has decided to launch a new Japan-UK weather and climate fellowship.
“I was greatly honoured to be awarded the Japan Prize. The Award Ceremony was wonderful and, beyond our wildest dreams, it was followed by a 20-minute private conversation with the Emperor and Empress of Japan,” he said.
“I was particularly pleased to share the prize with my friend and colleague Mike Wallace, with whom I have discussed science for many decades, often during our many hiking adventures together.”
Sir Brian joined the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology in 1970. He shared the Japan Prize with his US colleague Professor John Michael Wallace, from the University of Washington. It was given for their work in the field of Resources, Energy, the Environment, and Social Infrastructure.
Sir Brian is only the eighth British scientist, and the first for 17 years, to be awarded the Japan Prize, and one of only 111 since its creation in 1985.
And it is this that is prompting him to create the fellowship, with the aim of increasing understanding of how the world’s climate is continuing to change.
“The advancements of weather and climate forecasting over the past half century have been extraordinary. We can now provide useful warnings of cyclones or floods, days and sometimes weeks ahead, and understand how continuing greenhouse gas emissions may change patterns of weather decades or centuries ahead,” Sir Brian said.
“Yet in the face of climate change and increasing numbers of extreme weather events, we need more than ever a new generation of talented scientists to work together to find answers to the many remaining mysteries of weather and climate.
“This is why I am delighted to fund this new fellowship that will build links between scientists in Japan and the UK who will develop the next big ideas in our subject.”
To celebrate Sir Brian’s award, and the new fellowship, the Univeristy held a reception last week.
Hosted by Professor Parveen Yaqoob, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor, guests included Hajime Hayashi, the Japanese ambassador.
“Sir Brian Hoskins has been a leader of the UK’s world-class research into meteorology and climate science for more than half a century. We are enormously proud of his achievements and his scientific legacy, which continues to this day. His success shows that internationally outstanding British research comes from its strength in depth and breadth,” Prof Yaqoob said.
“It is typical of Sir Brian’s generosity and forward-looking approach that he has asked that we establish this scheme to encourage scientific collaboration between Japan and the UK.”
