Gordon McBean
Gordon McBean, CM, is a Canadian climatologist who serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. He is a professor at the University of Western Ontario and Chair for Policy in the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. Previously he was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Meteorological Service of Canada.
In 1995, McBean gave a speech to the World Meteorological Organization on global warming.
In 2006, McBean, with Andrew Weaver and Ken Denman, authored an open letter, signed by 90 climate scientists, to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling for an effective national climate change strategy. Newswire press release The letter (PDF) Univ. of Western Ontario page Globe and Mail article
The letter was a response to an earlier open letter to Harper from 60 scientists (19 Canadians) arguing against the Kyoto accord and questioning its scientific basis: National Post April 6, 2006, retrieved April 20, 2007.
In addition to his involvement with the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, McBean is member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences partnerships committee and since 2014 president of the International Council for Science (ICSU) [1] (before 2014 member of the environment advisory committee). He also acts as a mentor for the Loran Scholars program.
Education
- Ph.D. Physics and Oceanography, University of British Columbia
Awards and honours
- MSC Patterson Medal, 1989 website
- CMOS President’s Prize
- Environment Canada Jim Bruce Award
- McBean has been a long-standing contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organisation that was jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize together with Al Gore.[2]
- In 2010, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.[3]
- In 2011, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario.[4]
