AOGS Axford Medal Award Recipient
2022-2023
2023 AOGS Axford Medallist
Professor John CHURCH
University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Professor John Church is the world’s pre-eminent authority on the rate of 20th Century sea-level rise. Over a sustained period, he has played a leading role in establishing a consistent and robust record of sea level change, integrating traditional tide gauge records with satellite radar altimetry data, as well as making important contributions to our understanding of ocean dynamics and the response to a changing climate. His highly original body of work is both well-founded in fundamental physics and supported by observational evidence, and has been instrumental in establishing a rigorous, reliable understanding of the underlying physical processes driving sea level change, and in providing robust projections of future change under different climate scenarios.
Professor Church has been highly prominent in national and international leadership, planning and coordination of climate research for over three decades. Not only was he central to establishing the ocean climate program at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), he also served as Co-Chair of the World Climate Research Program’s (WCRP) World Ocean Circulation Experiment – the most ambitious and significant ocean experiment ever undertaken – and Chair of the Scientific Steering Group of the WCRP during 2006-2008. As one of the leading international scientists in the field of sea level rise, he was a Coordinating Lead Author on the sea level change chapters of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third (2001) and Fifth (2013) Assessment Reports. These international leadership roles reflect both Church’s commitment and service to the profession, as well as the exceptionally high regard in which he is held by his peers.
His papers on sea-level rise have featured in the last three IPCC reports and have been recognised with numerous prestigious national and international awards, including the 2006 Roger Revelle Medal from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the 2016 Morton Medal from the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the 2019 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change (with Jonathan Gregory and Anny Cazenave) and the 2021 Jaeger Medal from the Australian Academy of Science. Church’s 2006 paper (with Neil White) on the global sea level record and the increase in the rate of rise from the late 19th Century to the present was selected as one of the best 40 papers across all fields published in Geophysical Research Letters over 40 years.
An exceptional mentor to young scientists, a hallmark of Professor Church’s career has been his support and guidance to many early career researchers, both inside outside his own research group. Influentially, he is also recognised as a leading communicator of climate science to policy makers and the public. Of his three major edited books, ‘Ocean Circulation and Climate’ is a world-renowned text for students and experts alike, whilst ‘Understanding Sea-level Rise and Variability’ has become the international benchmark in the field.
Scientia Professor Matthew England
The University of Sydney