Andrew Pitman

Andrew Pitman is an atmospheric scientist who was born in Bristol in 1964 and educated at Liverpool University (B.Sc. Hons and Ph.D.). He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Leadership (Higher Education) from Macquarie University. In 2002 became a Professor at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, moving to University of New South Wales in 2007. He is currently the Director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. He won the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographical Society's Priestly Medal for excellence in Atmospheric Science Research in 2004 and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographical Medal in 2009. He contributed to the Copenhagen Diagnosis which was shortlisted for a 2010 Eureka Prize and won the 2010 Future Justice Prize. He won the New South Wales' NSW Climate Scientist of the year in 2010.

Current Research Interests

Pitman has recently been working on coupled carbon modules for climate models including dynamic vegetation, how vegetation responds to increasing carbon dioxide and how uncertain our projections of the future might be given instability in terrestrial carbon storage. He has also explored the global and regional impacts of land cover change. He has interests in climate extremes and how these are likely to change in the future.

Current Positions Held

Pitman currently holds the following positions:

• Director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, hosted by the University of New South Wales.
• Former Convenor of the Australian Research Council,
• Former Editor of the Journal of Climate
• Former Chair of the World Climate Research Program’s committee on Global Land Atmospheric System Study
• Member of the National Academy of Science’s committee on Earth Systems Science
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Risk Frontiers Natural Hazards Research Centre.

Pitman also served as a lead author of Working Group 1 of the IPCC 2005 and 2007 and is a Review Editor in the current assessment.

Selected publications

• Pitman, A. J. (2003-04-08). "The evolution of, and revolution in, land surface schemes designed for climate models". International Journal of Climatology (Royal Meteorological Society) 23 (15): 479–510. doi:10.1002/joc.893. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/104520263/abstract. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
• Pitman, A. J.; A. Henderson-Sellers, C. E. Desborough, Z.-L. Yang, F. Abramopoulos, A. Boone, R. E. Dickinson, N. Gedney, R. Koster, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lettenmaier, X. Liang, J.-F. Mahfouf, J. Noilhan, J. Polcher, W. Qu, A. Robock, C. Rosenzweig, C. A. Schlosser, A. B. Shmakin, J. Smith, M. Suarez, D. Verseghy, P. Wetzel, E. Wood and Y. Xue (September 1999). "Key results and implications from phase 1(c) of the Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parametrization Schemes". Climate Dynamics 15 (9): 673–684. doi:10.1007/s003820050309. http://www.springerlink.com/content/97eu0ab2d3tfgj48/. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
• McGuffie, K.; A. Henderson-Sellers, H. Zhang, T. B. Durbidge and A. J. Pitman (April 1995). "Global climate sensitivity to tropical deforestation". Global and Planetary Change 10 (1–4): 97–128. doi:10.1016/0921-8181(94)00022-6. 
• Henderson-Sellers, A.; R. E. Dickinson, T. B. Durbidge, P. J. Kennedy, K. Mcguffie and A. J. Pitman (1993). "Tropical Deforestation: Modeling Local- to Regional-Scale Climate Change". Journal of Geophysical Research 98 (D4): 7289–7315. doi:10.1029/92JD02830. http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1993/92JD02830.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-28.