David King (scientist)
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| Professor Sir David King FRS | |
 |
|
| Born | August 12, 1939 South Africa |
|---|---|
| Residence | UK |
| Fields | Physical Chemistry |
| Institutions | University of Oxford, University of Cambridge |
| Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand |
| Notable awards | Rumford Medal 2002, Royal Victorian Order 2003 |
Sir David A. King ScD FRS (b. August 12, 1939) is the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and a senior scientific adviser to UBS [1]. He was the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 to 31 December 2007. In that time, he raised the profile of the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the new £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. In 2008 he co-authored “The Hot Topic” (Bloomsbury 2008) on this subject. As Director of the Government’s Foresight Programme, he created an in-depth horizon scanning process which advised government on a wide range of long term issues, from flooding to obesity. He also chaired the government’s Global Science and Innovation Forum from its inception. He advised government on issues including: The foot-and-mouth disease epidemic 2001; post 9/11 risks to the UK; GM foods; energy provision; and innovation and wealth creation; and he was heavily involved in the Government’s Science and Innovation Strategy 2004-2014.
He was born in South Africa in 1939, and after an early career at the University of Witwatersrand, Imperial College and the University of East Anglia, he became the Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1974. In 1988 he was appointed 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and subsequently became Master of Downing College (1995 – 2000) and Head of the University Chemistry Department (1993 – 2000). He has published over 450 papers on his research in chemical physics and on science and policy, and has received numerous prizes, Fellowships and Honorary Degrees. He continues as Director of Research in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University, and is currently President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
In his role of scientific advisor to the UK government he was outspoken on the subject of climate change, saying:
- I see climate change as the greatest challenges facing Britain and the World in the 21st century [2]
and
- climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today - more serious even than the threat of terrorism [3]
He strongly supports the work of the IPCC, saying in 2004 that the 2001 synthesis report is the best current statement on the state of play of the science of climate change, and that really does represent 1,000 scientists [4]
He has criticised the United States government for what he sees as its failures in climate change policy, saying it is: failing to take up the challenge of global warming [5].
In an article published in The Guardian newspaper on 25 October 2005, George Monbiot drew attention to King's increasing support for nuclear power in the UK, which, Monbiot argues, contradicts his stance on climate change, and represents a mutation of his role. [6]
Sir David King told The Independent newspaper in February 2007 "he agreed that organic food was no safer than chemically-treated food" and openly supported a study by the Manchester Business School that implicated organic farming practices in unfavourable CO2 comparisons with conventional chemical farming.
King has confirmed that he will return to the land of his birth to give a talk at SciFest Africa, the annual science festival in Grahamstown, a small university town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa in 2008.[7]
[edit] External links
[edit] Biographical
[edit] David King in the news
- David King: Three billion lives hang on three degrees, warns scientist
- David King: London could be among the first cities to go if global warming causes the planet's ice to melt
- David King: Climate change is a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism
- Scientist David King renews climate attack
- Presentation by Sir David King at The Scottish Oil Club, December 2004
- Warmwell.com, February 2007
- Organic farming 'no better for the environment', 20th February 2007
- Opinion on climate change: Engineering a Solution, Ingenia Magazine, March 2008
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by ? |
Master of Downing College, Cambridge 1995–2000 |
Succeeded by Stephen Fleet |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Sir Robert May |
Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government 2000–2007 |
Succeeded by John Beddington |
| Professional and academic associations | ||
| Preceded by John Browne |
President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 2007–2008 |
Incumbent |
