Dr Greg Ayers
Atmospheric scientist Dr Greg Ayers is former Director of Meteorology and CEO of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
He joined the Bureau in 2009 after an extensive career in research with CSIRO, commencing as a Research Scientist at CSIRO’s Division of Cloud Physics, later serving as Chief of Atmospheric Research, then Chief of the enlarged Marine and Atmospheric Research, headquartered in Hobart (2002 - 2009).
As a researcher he led national and international studies on aerosol and cloud feedbacks in the climate system.
He spent periods as a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado, the Department of Chemical Meteorology, Stockholm University, the School of Environmental Science, University of East Anglia, and the International Meteorological Institute, Stockholm.
He authored over 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications, a similar number of consultancy and project reports, registered patents and wrote commercial licences for instruments he developed while with CSIRO. Seconded to the Department of Climate Change he drafted Australia’s National Framework for Climate Change Science.
Dr Ayers has extensive experience in multi-party research, chairing two Joint Ventures: the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, and the Water Information Research and Development Alliance. He helped write the JV agreements.
He was a founding Board Member for the Western Australian Marine Science Institution for which he helped write the Constitution, a Board Member for the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, and served as Chair for the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub. He chaired the National Research Infrastructure Scoping Study that designed a new NCRIS facility to support climate and earth system modelling by Australian researchers, funded in the October 2020 budget. He currently Chairs the Advisory Board for Australia's premier supercomputing facility, the National Computational Infrastructure at the ANU in Canberra, and is on the Board of National Hazards Research Australia.
Dr Ayers has held various editorial positions and contributed significantly to higher education. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth System Science, past Chair of the Advisory Board for the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University, and chaired the international panel that reviewed the Cape Grim Science Program after 40 years of operation.
He served in the diplomatic role of Australia’s Permanent Representative to the World Meteorological Organization, a UN Agency, and member of its Executive Council (EC). He chaired the EC’s Panel of Experts on Polar Observations Research and Services, hosting international polar science meetings in Hobart.
In 1995 he was awarded the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society’s Priestley Medal. In 2006 Dr Ayers was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.