Menu Close
Distinguished Scholar, NCAR; Affiliate Faculty, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

From New Zealand, Dr. Kevin E. Trenberth is a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and he is an honorary affiliate faculty at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who studies climate variability and change. After a doctoral degree at MIT, and a stint as a professor at University of Illinois, he joined NCAR, but retired in 2020. He has been heavily engaged in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007), and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). He chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) program under WCRP. He has over 295 refereed journal articles and over 630 publications and is one of the most highly cited scientists in geophysics.

Experience

  • –present
    Distinguished Senior Scientist, Climate Analysis, National Center for Atmospheric Research
  • 1984–2012
    Research climate scientist, NCAR

Education

  • 1972 
    MIT, Sc.D. meteorology

Professional Memberships

  • American Geophysical Union: Fellow
  • AAAS, Fellow
  • American Meteorological Society: Fellow
  • Honorary member New Zealand Meteorological Society
  • Honorary Fellow Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi

Research Areas

  • Climate Change Processes (040104)
  • Surfacewater Hydrology (040608)
  • Atmospheric Dynamics (040102)

Honours

NCAR Distinguished Achievement Award 2003; Jule G. Charney award, American Meteorological Society, 2000; Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water: Surface water prize (joint award with Aiguo Dai for $133,000), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, January 2013. AGU’s 2013 Climate Communication Prize ($25,000) December 2013 and Revelle Medal in 2017.