Stephen Sitch

University of Exeter

Professor Stephen Sitch has >25 years research experience with a track record of highly collaborative, interdisciplinary research in Earth System Science. He was principal developer of the LPJ Dynamic Global Vegetation Model, and has published extensively on modelling plant physiology, vegetation dynamics, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem-atmosphere interactions. He currently leads ‘TRENDY’, the international team providing land flux estimates for the Global Carbon Project’s annual carbon budget update, and GCP’s regional synthesis chapters (RECCAP2), and has been contributing author to IPCC.

Professor Sitch has 315 journal publications, cited 60k times and an H-index of 103 (web of science, Jan 2025). This includes 17 papers in Nature and Science. Professor Sitch is in Thomson Reuters’ 2014 list of the world’s most influential scientific minds in environment and ecology and Highly Cited Researcher in Geosciences in 2017 and 2019-2024. He was ranked 14 in the Reuters hot list of world’s top climate scientists. He was awarded the Humboldt Research Award in 2024.

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER APPOINTMENTS

• Deputy Director of the Global Carbon Budget Office, Global System Institute
• University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom, (2022 -)
• Head (Academic lead) of the Terrestrial Ecosystems Restoration and Adaptation research group, ESE, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom (2021 – )
• Director of Post Graduate Research for Physical Geography, University of Exeter (2012-16, 2019-2021)
• Director of CUHK-University of Exeter Joint Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience (ENSURE), (2022- )

DEGREES

• PhD
• Jan 2001 awarded PhD in Plant Ecology, University of Lund, Sweden
  Thesis: The role of vegetation dynamics in the control of atmospheric CO2 content

UNIVERSITY INSTITUTES & EXETER RESEARCH CENTRE

• Global Systems Institute