16 October 2007
Eight scientists from Monash University are sharing in the prestige of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded jointly last week to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former US Vice-President Al Gore.
Researchers from Monash University's School of Geography and Environmental Science, the School of Mathematical Science and the Monash Sustainability Institute were among the scientists honoured with the award as a result of their involvement in the international network of scientists.
Monash staff involved in the IPCC are Professor Neville Nicholls (lead author), Professor Dave Griggs (review editor), Professor Amanda Lynch (contributing author), Ms Lisa Alexander (contributing author), Professor Nigel Tapper (reviewer), Dr Steve Siems (reviewer), Dr Graeme Pearman (reviewer) and Professor Michael Manton (reviewer).
Lead author Professor Neville Nicholls said it was a great honour to be recognised through the extensive scientific reporting and reviewing that gave the work of the United Nation's body such prestige and integrity.
Professor Nicholls said the process of drafting and peer review was "exhaustive and exhausting."
Professor Nicholls has been researching the causes and impacts of climate variations and change for 35 years, first in the Bureau of Meteorology and since the start of 2006 at Monash.
He was a lead author of the chapter of the latest IPCC assessment that dealt with why we can attribute the warming of the past 50 years to human activity. He also had the responsibility for collating and summarizing what the scientific community knows about changes in climate and weather extremes such as tropical cyclones.
Professor Dave Griggs, newly appointed Director of the Monash Sustainability Institute, spent five years as head of the Science Working Group Secretariat of IPCC. He said working for IPCC writing and producing its assessment reports, special reports and technical papers was the most demanding but satisfying work anyone could hope to do.
"Now the evidence is clear we all have to step up to address the challenges presented by global warming and this is where I believe the cross-disciplinary MSI can play a major role," Professor Griggs said.
The voluntary work of about 450 lead authors, 800 contributing authors and the hundreds of reviewers has given the UN's assessment on climate change rigour and prestige.
The IPCC assessments are based on peer-reviewed scientific and technical literature. The IPCC reports are written by teams of authors from all over the world who are recognised experts in their fields. They represent relevant disciplines as well as differing scientific opinions.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to members of the IPCC and environment campaigner Al Gore "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
Mr Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
About 100 Australian scientists mainly from CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Tasmania and the UNSW are involved in the IPCC process.
Monash University Council member Dr John Zillman was instrumental in establishing IPCC back in 1988, and was Australia's delegate to the IPCC for more than a decade. | 
