Release Date 29 April 2016

A climate scientist from the University of Reading has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Professor Ted Shepherd, Grantham Chair in Climate Science at Reading's Department of Meteorology, is one of 50 leading scientists who have been elected to join the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific society in continuous existence.

The Fellowship of the Royal Society is made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from or living and working in the UK and the Commonwealth. Past Fellows and Foreign Members have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Professor Shepherd said: "I am thrilled and deeply honoured to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. It is humbling to be joining such an august company of scientists, past and present.

"It is immensely gratifying for a scientist to know that their research is held in high regard by their peers. I wish to thank all my colleagues who have made this possible, both during my many years in Canada and now in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, because so much of my research has been highly collaborative.

"As a climate scientist, I hope to use my position as a Fellow of the Royal Society to increase the public awareness of climate change and issues of climate risk and resilience. In this way I can make my own contribution to the Royal Society's impressive record of communicating science to inform evidence-based discussion of important societal issues."

Professor Shepherd joined the University of Reading in 2012 from the University of Toronto. As well as authoring hundreds of influential scientific papers, he has frequently contributed to efforts to communicate to non-scientific audiences, including through the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

'This is a wonderful recognition of Professor Shepherd's outstanding research career, and for his notable efforts to improve engagement between climate scientists, policymakers and the public' -- Sir David Bell

Sir David Bell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: "I offer my warmest congratulations to Professor Shepherd on his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, which is one of the highest honours that can be conferred on any scientist. This is a wonderful recognition of his outstanding research career, and for his notable efforts to improve engagement between climate scientists, policymakers and the public.

"Ted is in good company in the Department of Meteorology at Reading as he joins colleagues Regius Professor Keith Shine, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins and Professor Mike Lockwood, along with Visiting Professor Dame Julia Slingo, as Fellows of the Royal Society. Their collective achievements are further evidence that Reading is continuing to strengthen its position as one of the leading centres for the study of atmospheric and environmental science in the world."

Among the other scientists elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society this year are University of Reading honorary graduate Vinton Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google; Professor Brian Cox, University of Manchester, a particle physicist and science communicator; and the Oxford mathematician, Professor Marcus du Sautoy.