Gavin Schmidt

Gavin A. Schmidt is a British climatologist and climate modeler who serves as director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, a leading Earth climate research laboratory. Schmidt earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors in mathematics from Jesus College, Oxford, and a doctorate in applied mathematics from University College London. He completed postdoctoral research at McGill University and was a NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellow at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies before joining the institute full-time as its director, becoming the third person to hold the position. Schmidt is also an adjunct researcher at Columbia University's Earth Institute and principal investigator for the GISS ModelE Earth System Model.

Schmidt's research focuses on climate variability, including internal dynamics and responses to external factors such as solar irradiance, greenhouse gases, aerosols, and atmospheric chemistry. He has contributed to the development and refinement of the GISS ocean and coupled general circulation models, including the isotopically enabled GISS ModelE, which simulates isotope patterns observed in ice cores, cave records, and ocean sediments. Schmidt has served as a contributing author to reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has held the role of acting senior advisor on climate to the NASA administrator.

Schmidt has published more than 100 studies in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is co-author, with Joshua Wolfe, of "Climate Change: Picturing the Science." He has received recognition from Scientific American and an honorary Doctor of Science from Bristol University.

In addition to his research, Schmidt is known for his work in science communication. He received the inaugural Climate Communications Prize from the American Geophysical Union and was named EarthSky Science Communicator of the Year. Schmidt co-founded RealClimate, a widely read blog providing context and background on climate science for journalists and the public. He has appeared on television, radio, and in print, and his TED Talk on "The Emergent Patterns of Climate Change" has reached a broad audience. Schmidt has delivered keynote and invited lectures at academic institutions and scientific symposia, contributing to public understanding of climate science and climate change.