Photograph of David B. Stephenson

Professor David B. Stephenson MA. Oxford, PhD. Edinburgh

Director of Exeter Climate Systems (XCS)
University of Exeter
More info: XCS website

Professor David Stephenson has been actively involved in climate research since 1989 and has worked at several world-renowned institutions that include the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Princeton (1989-91) and the French National Weather Service Meteo-France (1992-1998).

His research is targeted on the development of advanced statistical methodologies that can provide deeper understanding of climate variations and improve the quality of weather and climate forecasts. He is renowned for his expertise in three main areas:

  • climate modes and weather regimes (e.g. Stephenson et al. 2000; Ambaum et al. 2001);
  • global warming trends in extreme weather events (e.g. Stephenson & Held 1993);
  • forecast verification/calibration (e.g. Stephenson 2000; Jolliffe and Stephenson 2003).

In all three of these areas, he has contributed new ideas and approaches that are now enabling fellow climate scientists and meteorologists to develop deeper insight into the climate system. For example, he has demonstrated how knowledge of the stratosphere can improve long-range weather forecasts of the North Atlantic Oscillation (a major climate mode), how changes in daily weather extremes can be related to mean climate change, and which scores are suitable for the assessment of forecast quality. One of the unique strengths of his research is the interdisciplinary collaboration with statisticians, which he has enthusiastically initiated and developed over recent years.

His active involvement in climate research has led to many scientific publications: 80 papers in high-quality, refereed journals, 6 (refereed) papers in press, and a recent book on forecast verification published by Wiley and Sons. These publications are cited by an ever-growing number of articles in the literature (more than 500 citations to date). National and international recognition of his knowledge and expertise in the application of statistical methods has led to him being invited to serve on various editorial and expert teams. For example, he currently serves as an Editor for the Journal of Climate - the leading journal in climate research published by the American Meteorological Society - as well as Associate Editor for two other meteorological journals. He is also an invited member of various World Meteorological Office expert committees: special advisor to the CCl/CLIVAR Expert Team on Climate Change Detection, Monitoring and Indices, member of WWRP Joint Working Group on forecast verification, member of WCP Expert Team on Forecast Verification. He receives frequent all-expenses paid invitations to give review lectures and courses at conferences and academic institutions around the world (e.g. IPCC extremes workshop in Beijing 2002, ETH Zurich 2003, WMO verification workshop 2004, etc.).

Since 2004, he has had the honour to serve as an Adjunct Professor at Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in the University of Bergen, Norway.

Please email me if you would like to discuss research collaboration or career opportunities.

More information can be found in his Curriculum Vita: Acrobat PDF format | Word format


Profile page with publications
28 October 2008