Gordon McBean honoured by world’s largest scientific society for work on climate change

February 01, 2023

Richard D. Clark and Gordon McBean

Western professor and renowned climatologist Gordon McBean (right) has been honoured by several organizations for his contributions to research and policy. He can be seen here receiving the 2023 Warren Washington Research and Leadership Medal from Richard D. Clark, president of the American Meteorological Society. (Submitted)

Award-winning climatologist Gordon McBean is joining the ranks of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as a Fellow, a lifetime honour. McBean, a renowned climate expert, is a geography and environment professor emeritus and an adjunct research professor of physics and astronomy who has studied climate change for more than five decades.

“To me it’s very much an honour to be a Fellow of the AAAS. It’s a very prestigious international organization. I’m a fellow of quite a few others, but that’s one of the biggies. I’m so pleased someone nominated me,” McBean said.

The director of policy at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, McBean was elected for his “leadership in international programs and organizations, and for communicating climate change to the public, political leaders, and the business community,” according to the AAAS.

McBean helped create or lead a slew of programs, projects and global organizations dedicated to climate research and action, including a term as president of the International Council for Science from 2014 to 2018.

He had a long career as a scientist and assistant deputy minister with Environment Canada and came to Western in 2000.

McBean’s environmental work has taken him across the globe, from a ship off the coast of Northern Africa researching hurricanes, to breakfast meetings with the president of Taiwan, to conferences on almost every continent.

Read the full story by Megan Stacey at Western News