Timothy Michael Lenton FGS FLS FRSB (born July 1973) is Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. In April 2013 he was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Background

He graduated with a first-class degree in natural sciences from Robinson College, Cambridge in 1994 and completed his PhD under Andrew Watson at the University of East Anglia in 1998.

Gaia hypothesis

Lenton has taken an interest in the Gaia hypothesis for much of his career. Early in his career, in the journal Nature, Lenton addressed a concern that the Gaia hypothesis was incompatible with the theory of natural selection by demonstrating that a model based on Daisyworld was strengthened by incorporating natural selection. Lenton, with Andy Watson, co-authored the book Revolutions that Made the Earth; it expands on the ideas of James Lovelock on the Gaia hypothesis, by highlighting mechanisms by which the Earth system has been stabilised by negative feedbacks throughout Earth history.

Climate change

Impacts

Lenton has participated in studies of possible population displacement due to climate change.

Tipping points

Lenton has been called 'a leading tipping point expert'.

Publications