Visiting Professor, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Professor Alan O'Neill is a Visiting Professor in the Cavendish Laboratory, a Life Member of Clare Hall and Emeritus Professor of Meteorology at the University of Reading. He has run large national collaborative programmes in climate science. He is the founding director of NERC's National Centre for Earth Observation where he was in charge of collaborative programmes on the use of satellites in environmental science. He has also been heavily involved in developing strategies for Earth Observation from space, both nationally and as chair of the Earth Sciences Advisory Committee for the European Space Agency. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts.

As a visiting Professor in the Cavendish Laboratory, based in its new Maxwell Centre, Alan aims to help build capability in Cambridge in the use of satellite data and "big data" analytical methods (e.g. machine learning) for diverse applications in the environmental and climate sectors, in particular in the area of agri-food and sustainable production. He aims to do this in collaboration with external partners in both the public and private sectors.

Alan's research career was on large scale dynamics of the stratosphere and on data assimilation, the science of combining observations, especially those from satellites, with weather and climate prediction models.