Carolin RICHTER has been Director of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Secretariat since April 2009. Carolin has a Diploma and a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Hamburg, Germany. From 1990 to 1994, she was a researcher at the Institute of Meteorology, University of Hamburg, and then, until 1996, Research Fellow at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, United Kingdom. From October 1996 to January 1999, she was Junior Professional Officer with GCOS, WMO. She then joined the Deutscher Wetterdienst, first as Quality Manager and Expert, then as Head, Division Measurement Technology, Deputy Head, Department Observing Networks and Data. In 2005, Carolin was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, where she served as Deputy Head, Division for Meteorology, Climate Monitoring and Earth Observation.

Adrian Simmons completed a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1972 on aspects of the dynamical meteorology of the stratosphere. His postdoctoral work at the University of Reading combined research and development in atmospheric modeling with further research in atmospheric dynamics, the life cycles of mid-latitude cyclones in particular. He joined the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in 1978, where he was first active in the development and refinement of ECMWF’s atmospheric forecast model. He also developed interests in atmospheric predictability and the use of high-performance computing. From 1995 he managed development of the assimilation of ground-based and satellite data for both numerical weather prediction and climate reanalysis. He is currently coordinator at ECMWF of the EU-funded project that provides the pilot for the core GMES Atmosphere Service. He is also Chair of the GCOS/WCRP Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate and a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading.

Alan Belward works at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy where he is Head of the Global Environment Monitoring Unit in the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, an appointment he has held since 1998. The Unit provides information on terrestrial and marine ecosystem dynamics from satellite remote sensing to help in the sustainable management of natural resources, for assessing climate change impacts and for the conservation and use of biological diversity. He has a BSc in Plant Biology from Newcastle University, UK and a PhD in remote sensing studies of vegetation from Cranfield University, UK. From 2002 to 2006 he chaired the Global Climate Observing System’s (GCOS) Terrestrial Panel. In 2009 he was invited to join the GCOS Steering Committee and he is currently a Principal Investigator with the NASA and USGS Landsat Data Continuity Mission Science Team.

Thomas Karl is the Director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center and Lead of NOAA’s climate services. Dr. Karl is author of many climatic atlases and technical reports, and has published over 150 articles in various scientific journals. He was identified as one of the most frequently cited Earth Scientists of the 1990s. Dr. Karl has been a Lead Author on several IPCC Assessments and most recently has served as a Review Editor. He was part of the IPCC process that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Karl is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union, and a National Associate of the National Research Council. In 2002, he was elected to serve on the Council of the American Meteorological Society and currently serves as President of the Society.

Anthony Okon Nyong holds a PhD from McMaster University, Canada. He is currently Principal Climate Change Expert at the African Development Bank. Before joining the Bank, he was a senior specialist for the International Development Research Centre programme on climate change adaptation in Africa. Prior to that, he was a professor of global environmental change and Director of the Centre for Environmental Resources and Hazards Research at the University of Jos, Nigeria. He was coordinating lead author for the chapter on Africa in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and also served on the Panel’s Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis. Anthony has served on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change expert panel on technologies for adaptation to climate change, the science advisory committee of the Global Environmental Change and Food Systems, and of the pan-African committee for the System for Analysis, Research and Training (START). He served as a visiting scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute, Oxford. Anthony is a chartered geographer and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Gabriela SEIZ has been Head of Staff Office Climate Division at the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss since 2006. She has a Master of Geography and Atmospheric Physics (1996) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a PhD in Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (2003) from the Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Gabriela also holds an Executive MBA from the University of Aix-Marseille, France, and the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. She has been a Visiting Scientist at EUMETSAT in April and November 2004, and a Visiting Advisor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL), Pasadena, US, from July to September 2004. From 2005 to 2006, Gabriela worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Frascati, Italy. In her current position, she is responsible for the Swiss GCOS Office, the coordination office for all climate relevant observations in Switzerland. Gabriela is a member of the Swiss Delegation to UNFCCC and of the Swiss Delegation to ESA (Programme Board on Earth Observation), as well as a member of several national committees on space affairs.

Jochem Marotzke is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and an honorary professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany. From 2006 to 2009, he was Acting Scientific Director at the German Climate Computing Centre. From 1999 to 2003, he was a professor at the Southampton Oceanography Centre, United Kingdom. Prior to this, Jochem was a post-doctoral associate, assistant and associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States of America. In 2009, Jochem was awarded the Fridtjof Nansen Medal of the European Geophysical Union and in 2007 he was elected to the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. He has served on a number of boards and committees: the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme; the Scientific Advisory Board, German Weather Service; the Scientific Advisory Committee, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts; and the Scientific Advisory Board, Leibniz Institute of Marine Science, Germany. Jochem holds a doctorate in physical oceanography from the University of Kiel, Germany.