Previous Fora / 2013
McBean, Gordon
President Elected, ICSU
Gordon McBean, was born and educated in Canada and obtained a PhD in physics from the University of British Colombia (UBC), Vancouver. After an academic and research career that included serving as Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences at UBC, he was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister in Environment Canada, and was, from 1994 to 2000, responsible for climate, weather and air quality sciences and services in the federal government. He currently a Professor in the Departments of Geography and Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, and is Director of Policy Studies at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction there. His research interests are in atmospheric and climate sciences, ranging in scope from natural phenomena, and the hazards they generate, to the policies of governments and responses of people to them.
For many years McBean has been involved in ICSU and ICSU-related affairs, including the Chair of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the planning of a new decade-long interdisciplinary research programme Integrated Research on Disaster Risk, whose Scientific Committee he chairs until 1 November. He is President of Global Change START International, an organization supporting regional networks and capacity enhancement in Africa and Asia, and notably in the context of ICSU’s international global change programme.
His service and achievements in the fields of climate change and
natural hazards research have been recognized with the Orders of Canada
(2008) and Ontario (2010). He is a Fellow of the: Royal Society of
Canada; the American Meteorological Society; the Royal Canadian
Geographical Society; and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic
Society; and received the Patterson Medal for distinguish contributions
to meteorology by a Canadian. As a lead author and review editor for
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), he was a member of
the team that was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
He is a member of: the UNESCO High Panel on Science for Development; the Canadian Commission for UNESCO; the IGU Steering Committee for the proposed International Year of Global Understanding; and the UN ISDR Science and Technology Committee. He is also Chair of Board of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences and the Ontario Research Consortium on Climate Change.
During his time in government, he was an elected Member of the World Meteorological Organization Executive Committee and Vice-Chair of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. He was Chair of the Canadian National Committees for IUGG and SCOR and member of the IUGG Bureau and the Board for the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
18:00-19:00 24 NOVEMBER
OPENING ADDRESSES
16:00-17:30 26 november
PARALLEL THEMATIC SESSIONS III. "science and technology in the service of disaster risk reduction"