Congratulations

Congratulations to Professor Bob Watson, who has just been elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Comments

[chris gray]

And so thecorruption of the institution continues.

[Jack Savage]

When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an Attorney's firm.
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,
And I polished up the handle of the big front door.
He polished up the handle of the big front door.
I polished up that handle so carefullee
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!
He polished up that handle so carefullee,
That now he is the ruler of the Queen's Navee.

[Phillip Bratby]

When was the last time Bob Watson actually did any science. According to Wikipedia he has been in a series of bureaucratic posts for donkeys' years

Watson joined the World Bank as Senior Scientific adviser in the Environment Department in 1996, became Director of the Environment Department and Head of the Environment Sector Board in 1997 and is currently the Chief Scientist and Senior Adviser for Sustainable Development. He took up a position as Chair of Environmental Science and Science Director of the Tyndall Centre at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, in August 2007[2] and joined the British Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as Chief Scientific Adviser in September 2007.[3]

Prior to joining the World Bank, Watson was Associate Director for Environment in the Office of the President of the United States in the White House and prior to that, Director of the Science Division and Chief Scientist for the Office of Mission to Planet Earth at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

He was Chairman of the Global Environment Facility's Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel from 1991 to 1994, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002 and Board co-chair for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment from 2000 to 2005. He is currently Director of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development and co-chair of the International Scientific Assessment of Stratospheric Ozone. He has been Chair or co-chair of other international scientific assessments, including the IPCC Working Group II, the United Nations Environment Programme/World Meteorological Organization (UNEP/WMO), and the UNEP Global Biodiversity Assessment.

From his time at Columbis University in 2004 we learn

Dr. Robert Watson
Chief Scientist, Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network, The World Bank

Publications

Publications marked with a * are directly accessible only from a Columbia University computer. For outside access, please consult your institution's library or the publisher.

Crawford, Michael, Sara Farley, and Robert Watson. "Strategic Approaches to Science and Technology in Development." Working Paper 3026. World Bank, April 11, 2003, http://econ.worldbank.org/view.php?type=5&id=25709.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report; Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ed. Robert T. Watson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry: A Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ed. Robert T. Watson, Ian R. Noble, Bert Bolin, N. H. Ravindranath, David J. Verardo, and David J. Dokken. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/land_use/index.htm.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability. Ed. Robert T. Watson, Marufu C. Zinyowera, and Richard H. Moss. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

World Bank. Meeting the Challenges of Population, Environment, and Resources: The Costs of Inaction. Environmentally Sustainable Development Proceedings Series, no. 14. Ed. Henry Way Kendall, Kenneth J. Arrow, Norman E. Borlaug, Paul R. Ehrlich, Joshua Lederberg, Jose I. Vargas, Robert T. Watson, and Edward O. Wilson. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1996.

Biographical Information

Current Positions

Chief Scientist and Senior Advisor for Environmentally & Socially Sustainable Development, World Bank
Co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Co-chair of the international scientific assessment of stratospheric ozone

Previous Positions

Director, Environment Department, World Bank
Senior Advisor, Environment Department, World Bank
Associate Director for Environment, Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House, Washington, D.C.
Director and Chief Scientist, Science Division, Office of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA

Education

Ph.D., (Gas Phase Chemical Kinetics) — 1973 - QMC, London University, London, England
B.Sc. 1st class (chemistry) — 1969 - QMC, London University, London, England

Awards (include)

2003 - Honorary "Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George"

2003 - Honorary Doctor of Science, University of East Anglia, England

2003 - Honorary Doctor of Science, UMIST, England

2003 - Global Green Award for International Environmental Leadership — U.S. chapter of the Green Cross International formed by Mikhail Gorbachev

2000 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Protection Award

1995 - UNEP Award for Protection of the Ozone Layer

1994 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Award for scientific understanding of the ozone layer

1993 - Climate Institute Scientific Achievement Award for Coordinating Scientific assessments

1993 - American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

1993 - American Meteorological Society Special Award "for notable efforts in organizing and conducting international assessments in ozone depletion and global change"

1992 - National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Reviewing

1991 - American Geophysical Union's Edward A. Flinn, III Award established to recognize individuals who personify the American Geophysical Union's motto of unselfish cooperation in research through their facilitating coordination and implementing activities (first recipient)

1989 - Designated member of UNEP's "The Global 500: The Roll of Honor for Environmental Achievement"

1989 - NASA Distinguished Service Medal

1983 - NASA Exceptional Service Medal

Previous Experiences (include)

Co-chair of the Board of Directors of the International Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: 2000–present
Co-chair of the International Scientific Assessment of Stratospheric Ozone: 1980–present
Co-chair of the Convention on Biodiversity Roster of Experts on Climate Change and Biodiversity: 2002 — 2003
Member of the jury for the Zayed Prize for the Environment: 2001–present
Chair of the International Council of Scientific Unions CSPR Assessment Panel on Environment in Relation to Sustainable Development: 2002-2003
Member of the International Council of Scientific Unions Advisory Committee on the Environment: 1998–present
Chairman, UNEP/WMO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change September 1997–April 2002
Chair of the International Steering Committee for the UNEP project: Assessment of Impacts and Adaptation to Climate Change: 2001–2002
Member of the IPCC Bureau: 1993 to April 2002
Convening lead author of IPCC Technical paper on Climate Change and Biodiversity: April 2001–April 2002
Chair of an International Panel on the Scientific and Policy Inter-linkages Among Global Environmental Issues — 1996 to 1998
Co-chair: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Mitigation) - 1993–September 1997
Co-chair: International WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessments of the Current Knowledge of the Processes Controlling the Abundance and Distribution of Atmospheric Ozone, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1994, and 1998
Chair: UNEP/WMO Synthesis Panel for international Ozone Assessment (Science, Impacts, Technology, and Economics), 1989, 1991, 1994
Chair: UNEP Global Biodiversity Assessment—1993 to 1995
Chair of the Science and Technical Advisory Panel to the Global Environmental Facility (World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and United Nations Environment Programme) 1991—November 1993
Chair: UNEP/WMO Synthesis Panel for Methyl Bromide (Science, Technology, and Economics)—1992
Chaired Chapter on Greenhouse Gases for the IPCC Scientific Assessment for Working Group I (1990 and 1992). Member of Steering Group for IPCC WG #1, 1990 and 1992.
Technical Advisor for the U.S. Government for both bilateral and multilateral negotiations of the Vienna Ozone Convention and the Montreal (CFC) Protocol
Technical Advisor for the U.S. Government on Climate Change and member of the U.S. delegation to the International Negotiation Committee on Climate Change
Testified many times before U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Committees and Sub-Committees on Ozone, Global Warming, and other Global Change Research issues

Still no sign of any science - just an overpaid burreaucrat and one of the elite.

[ZT]

The debasing of the Royal Society apparently is complete and, of course, even Pachauri has a Nobel prize. I wonder if Bob overlapped with Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank?

[dread0]

They've fallen a awful long way since the election of Reverend Bayes. Ordinarily, it'd be reasonable to suggest that the Royal Society had, with this latest insult to decency, hit rock bottom but there will doubtless come a point in the not too distant future where the election of Sooty to that august body will, by comparison, be seen as the long-awaited return to its historic values and function.

[Scottish Sceptic]

"where the election of Sooty to that august body will, by comparison, be seen as the long-awaited return to its historic values and function."

I do urge anyone who makes such comments to read "longitude" in which the Royal Society acted like a bunch of spoilt public-schoolboys who stole the ball every time the grammar school boys were winning the match.

The Royal society haven't exactly shone in the past and this just seems like form as usual. The big question is why anyone thought they were a serious body in the first place?

[dread0]

Happy to submit to your critique, Scottish Sceptic. I assumed the few past members I did know of to be indicative of a recent decline.

[Martin Brumby]

Watson has about as much credibility as Bob "Attack Chihuahua" Ward.

[A K Haart]

It will be interesting to see how many existing Fellows resign. None anyone?

[Anoneumouse]

Breaking News

Edward Acton the vice chancellor of the University of East Anglia has a super injunction which prevents the press reporting that Keith Briffer was the actual source of the leak of information which we now know as the climategate files.

That is the reason why Norfolk police have not been able to formally report that the files were leaked and not hacked.

[John Shade]

His politics and politicking will have been weighed in the balance, and found to be satisfactory. His science is of almost no interest whatsoever. Yet it, the RS, is a club (and a fundraising body) that would not have me as a member on either count, and so I am deprived of the G-Marxist rejoinder about not wanting to be a member of any club that would let the likes of me in. On the other hand, I think it simplifies the task of exposing the dedicated and shallow opportunism of CO2 alarmist leaders if they all gather in the same place at some stage. So I, for another, welcome this new 'honour' for jolly old Bob.

[Pharos]

Phillip

You missed one.

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/about/work/boards/council/members.asp

NERC has virtual monopoly on the assessment and support of academic UK Earth Science Research funding. Go back 40 years and it used to support 'pure' Earth Science Research, and do it laudably. Guess what is now top of their strategic priority list:-

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/about/strategy/ngscience.asp

[lapogus]

Anoneumouse - do you have a source or more details?

[Arthur Dent]

Methinks Anoneumouse is teasing......

[Aynsley Kellow]

I won't comment on the merits of Watson's election, but what struck me was the nature of his credentials as a 'climate scientist'. The man is qualified in chemistry. Given the number of people who have dared buy into the debate on AGW have been dismissed as 'not a climate scientist', it is interesting to note another 'climate scientist' has dubious qualifications as such - expecially when compared with the likes of Lindzen.

[Green Sand]

Anoneumouse

"Edward Acton the vice chancellor of the University of East Anglia has a super injunction...."

Magic, right or spoof, pure magic!

[Pharos]

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
Jacob Bronowski

[Fay Kelly-Tuncay]

MFB

[Ecclesiastical Uncle]

From the Ecclesiastical Uncle, an old retired bureaucrat in a field only remotely related to climate with minimal qualifications and only half a mind.

(1) Why don't they make me an FRS? I know just a little science and have a long undistinguished history as a bureaucrat with lots of different jobs - must be the perfect candidate!

(2) Does anybody know of a warts and all history of the RoySoc, not a hagiography? If there isn't one, is this a suitable project for the Bishop?

[BH adds - don't know about warts and all. John Gribbin did a history a few years back, but I don't think it covers the early years]

[stephen richards]

The royal soc's history is not sweet smelling throughout. Even Newton, one time president, was involved in some pretty awful gaming with another very famous scientist/physicist.

[Fay Kelly-Tuncay]

Repeal the Climate Change Act
991 signatures so far. Sign our petition
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43914.html

[BBD]

Fay Kelly-Tuncay

Just signed. Should have done so much sooner. Mea culpa.

Good for you for actually making a stand over this. The CCA (and its unelected enforcers in the CCC) are an obstacle to rational, democratically formed energy policy. Both must go.

[oakwood]

Maybe his application was inspired by Bob Ward joining us at the Geological Society of London last year. On becoming a fellow, his first task was to persuade the very pro-AGW editor of our montly members' magazine to publish his 'soapbox' piece attacking a favourable review of the HS Illusion.
http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/page8394.html (but I know we've over this before)

[Bishop Hill]

It's worth noting that not all FRSs are scientists. David Attenborough is one.

[Alexander K]

Scottish Sceptic, I have been banging the same drum for a very long time. The RS is symptomatic of the class problem that has infected the public life of the UK for too many generations. I am no social revolutionary, but the RS should have been reformed or shut down many years ago.

[Fay Kelly-Tuncay]

UPDATE We now have 1,363 signatures for repeal of the CCA - many thanks!