Sir John Theodore Houghton

Sir John Theodore Houghton CBE FRS FLSW (30 December 1931 - April 15, 2020) was a Welsh atmospheric physicist who was the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) scientific assessment working group which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports. He was professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, former Director General at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre.

He was the president of the John Ray Initiative, an organisation "connecting Environment, Science and Christianity", where he has compared the stewardship of the Earth, to the stewardship of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve. He was a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He became the president of the Victoria Institute in 2005.

Awards and honours

• Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2009)
• Japan Prize (2006)
• International Meteorological Organization Prize (1999)
• American Meteorological Society, Honorary Member (1998)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1995)
• Global 500 Award, under the United Nations Environmental Programme (1994)
• Climate Institute Annual Award (1992)
• Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society, (1991);
• Symons Gold Medal, Royal Meteorological Society (1990)
• Glazebrook Medal Institute of Physics, (1990);
• William Gaskell Medal of the Royal Meteorological Society, (1983)
• President of the Royal Meteorological Society (1976–1978)
• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (1972)

He received Honorary Doctorates of Science from the Universities of Wales (1991), Stirling (1992), East Anglia (1993), Leeds (1995), Heriot-Watt (1996), Greenwich (1997), Glamorgan (1998), Reading (1999), Birmingham (2000), Gloucestershire (2001), Hull (2002) and Dalhousie (2010). He is an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and of University of Wales, Lampeter and was also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

He died of complications from COVID-19 on 15 April 2020, aged 88.