Tim Naish

Professor Tim Naish was appointed as a member of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) in 2023 and as Chair in 2025. He is a professor in Earth Sciences in Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and was its Director between 2008-2017, when he took up a Royal Society of New Zealand James Cook Fellowship. He is also the PI and co-leader of the MBIE-funded Endeavour Programme – “Our Changing Coast”.

He has made 15 scientific expeditions to Antarctica, where he and his colleagues have made fundamental discoveries of how the Antarctic ice sheet responded to past climate change. His present research focuses on contemporary climate change with specific emphasis on contribution of the polar ice sheets and global sea-level change and providing location-specific estimates for future sea-level rise on the NZ coastline for an improved understanding of impact, hazard and risk. He is a committed communicator on Antarctic and climate science issues, such as the consequences and impacts globally and for New Zealand.

Tim was a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report. He serves also as Co-Chief Officer of Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s (SCAR) INSTANT (Instabilities and Thresholds in Antarctica) Programme. His “Melting Ice & Rising Seas Team” won the 2019 New Zealand Prime Minister's Science Prize. Tim has also received the New Zealand Antarctic Medal, the SCAR Tinker Muse Prize for Antarctic Science and Policy and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.