Philippe Ciais

Philippe Ciais (PC) is a world-leading scientist on global greenhouse gases modelling and observations, ranked as the most productive climate scientist in the world and among the most influential scholars in this field. Earlier career work proved the existence of a large northern land carbon sink and brought the first regional understanding of the inter-annual variability of atmospheric CO2 using atmospheric inverse models. Mid-career work pioneered the first estimate of the response of the carbon balance of Europe to mega-drought using multiple observations data-streams. Late career work involved key contributions to the development of land surface models and use of AI and satellites to track high resolution forest carbon changes. P. Ciais was co-chair of the Global Carbon Project, Convening Lead Author of the ‘carbon’ chapter of IPCC AR5, and established the ICOS operational greenhouse gas observation network in the European Union.