Ken Carslaw

Professor Ken Carslaw is a distinguished academic at the University of Leeds, holding a professorship in the Faculty of Environment within the School of Earth and Environment. He leads the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science and directs the Centre for Doctoral Training in Understanding Uncertainty to Reduce Climate Risks. His research group, the Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols Group, is one of the "supergroups" in the institute with over 15 researchers.

Professor Carslaw earned his academic qualifications from esteemed institutions: a BSc in Physics from the University of Birmingham, followed by an MSc and PhD in Atmospheric Science from the University of East Anglia. His doctoral research used thermodynamic models to demonstrate the existence of liquid polar stratospheric cloud particles.

Ken Carslaw's research focuses on atmospheric aerosol particles and their effects on climate. His work spans natural aerosols, Arctic aerosols, aerosol formation, dust and biogeochemistry, ice-nucleating particles, radiative forcing, volcanic impacts on climate and health, paleo-aerosols, air quality, uncertainty quantification, geoengineering, stratospheric aerosols, polar stratospheric clouds, and the ozone hole. His early research led to the discovery of liquid polar stratospheric clouds and the role of large cloud particles in Arctic denitrification. His group developed the Global Model of Aerosol Processes (GLOMAP), now implemented in the Met Office climate model, and established that new particle formation accounts for around half of climate-relevant aerosol particles in the atmosphere. In the CERN CLOUD experiment, his research led to the first global model of new particle formation based entirely on laboratory measurements.

Professor Carslaw has received numerous prestigious awards for his contributions to atmospheric science:

• Fellow of the Royal Society (2024)
• Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2019)
• Royal Meteorological Society Adrian Gill Prize (2019)
• American Geophysical Union Ascent Award
• Philip Leverhulme Prize
• Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award
• Thomson Reuters (Clarivate Analytics) Highly Cited Scientist (2014-2021)

Professor Carslaw has supervised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to successful careers in academia and research institutions worldwide. His current research group is working on several cutting-edge projects including global modeling of ice-nucleating particles, the influence of ice-nucleating particles on high-latitude mixed-phase clouds, building fast model emulators of cloud drop formation, and statistical methods to quantify and reduce uncertainty in aerosol forcing. He has secured significant research funding for projects such as ACSIS, CLARIFY, CLOUD-MOTION, CRESCENDO, and IceSO.

Professor Carslaw co-founded the European Geosciences Union journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in 2001 and currently serves as Co-Chief Editor. He has held leadership positions including Director of Research in the School of Earth and Environment (2005-2008) and Director of the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (2014-2017), during which he created the Centre for Environmental Modelling and Computation. He is actively involved in scientific service, serving on review panels for the European Research Council, Scientific Advisory Board at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and as a judge for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.