TWO READING scientists have been given prestigious awards for contributions to weather and climate research.
Professor Andrew Turner and Dr Rob Thompson both received accolades which will be presented at this year’s annual awards by the Royal Meteorological Society.
Professor Turner is a monsoon expert at the University of Reading and was bestowed The Buchan Award for Scientific Advances for demonstrating “sustained, original, and important” advances in our understanding of tropical weather and climate change.
His work has made new discoveries about monsoon rains and their variability, which effects the lives of billions of people around the world.
Dr Thompson is a rain and storms expert, also at the University of Reading, and was given The Michael Hunt Award for increasing public understanding of meteorology and its applications.
It follows his work to explain complex weather processes to a range of audiences in presentations, public lectures, media engagement, and within his teaching at the university.
He is also active on social media, with an experiment of his, showing the speed at which water can soak into the ground, having been viewed more than 3 million times on X, 2.6 million times on Instagram, and more than 3.6 million times on TikTok.
Professor Turner said: “It is a real pleasure and a great motivator to be recognised by the Royal Meteorological Society in this way. There is still so much work to do in understanding and predicting monsoon behaviour, and I know that this award inspires me to keep going.”
Rob Thompson said: “Throughout my career, I’ve been dedicated to making complex weather processes understandable and engaging for everyone.
“This award recognises my commitment to communicating the science of meteorology to diverse audiences.”
Four scientists from the University were also honoured by the RMS in 2022, including Professor Ed Hawkins, who won the Hugh Robert Mill Award for Precipitation Research.
