Professor, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and anything else you feel comfortable sharing.

Identity has a very broad spectrum. I’ll try to provide views into a couple of my wavelengths here.
I am a 65-year-old white male with Irish, Polish and German roots. I was born and grew up in Seattle, WA (USA), but have been living and working in Stockholm, Sweden for over 30 years. I am a dual U.S.-Swedish citizen. My wife of 34 years is Swedish, and both our children have dual U.S./Swedish citizenship. I start with this citizenship stuff because I feel it is important in the context of the role of President of AGU. We are a global organization. Having divided my life so far between two different continents has given me the opportunity to develop an identity with a fundamental respect for geographic, ethnic, gender and disciplinary diversity, and an understanding of the strength that diversity provides.

I’ve always looked at science as much more than just a job. It is a state of mind. Part of my identity these days involves trying to ensure that the benefits of science are available to all who need them. I feel it is my responsibility as a scientist and citizen to link discovery science with solutions to wicked problems.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

At AGU, I have been on the Council and Council Leadership Team, Editor-in-Chief of Community Science, and was on the Advisory Board of the Thriving Earth Exchange since its inception, being Vice-Chair from 2016 - 2019, and Chair from 2020 - 2022. I was a member of the Transdisciplinary Advisory Board for the European Joint Programming Initiative "Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe" (JPI Climate) starting in 2012, and was Chair from 2015-2019. I was Vice-Chair of the International Group of Funding Agencies.

The President and President-elect play key roles in leading the Board and Council in implementing the strategic plan, which offers exciting opportunities as well as challenges. What are AGU’s most promising avenues for future growth and impact? How would you lead AGU through obstacles to achieve our vision, values, mission, and goals?

What are AGU’s most promising avenues for future growth and impact?

Goal 1 of AGU’s strategic plan is to “Catalyze discovery and solutions to scientific and societal challenges”. Having the conjunction ‘and’ between discovery and science is a stroke of genius. AGU, and society at large, need both.

AGU is a membership-based science organization with more than a century of history supporting discovery science in many different fields. This legacy of supporting basic research has enormous value. AGU needs to continue to build on this legacy as we forge further into the 21st century. The need for basic research has not diminished.

At the same time, being in the Anthropocene epoch places new demands on the research community. We are faced with many ‘wicked’ problems that not only need to be researched, but for which solutions are desperately needed. Science must play a part in contributing to these solutions, and AGU as a premier science organization has a very important role to play in stimulating and supporting efforts to leverage science to help create solutions to our challenges.

I feel the most promising avenues for future growth and impact involve finding ways to enable and encourage AGU members to tap into both these skill sets, allowing our members to nimbly move between them if and when they wish to do so. This can best be done using the other two goals in the strategic plan as guides. AGU’s relevance, impact and support can only be improved if we can project the wonder and worth of the science we do.

How would you lead AGU through obstacles to achieve our vision, values, mission, and goals?

I believe that my previous experience in science and international science administration provide a good basis in terms of leading a member organization like AGU through challenging times.

I have been Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme; Vice-Chair of the International Group of Funding Agencies; Chair of the Transdisciplinary Advisory Board for JPI Climate; founding Director of the Swedish Secretariat for Environmental Earth System Sciences; vice-Chair and Chair of AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange; a member of the AGU Council and AGU Council Leadership Team; Editor-in-Chief of the Community Science Exchange.

These experiences have given me the opportunity to see how different complex, international science-based organizations work, and how they can be led. It has also provided me with the perspective that a little humility and humanity can go a long way in terms of being able to work collectively to define and achieve common goals. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with many talented, intelligent, driven people. My best experiences have been when these people are willing to learn from each other, and collaborate collegially to achieve common goals. Disagreements are an opportunity for learning. As long as we treat each other with respect and appreciation, we can use disagreements as stimuli to become better at what we do – both as individuals and as an organization.

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric Sciences; Biogeosciences; Global Environmental Change; Science and Society