Ed Hawkins

Edward (Ed) Hawkins MBE is a climate scientist known for his data visualization graphics portraying global warming, especially for general audiences, such as the warming stripes.

Hawkins was a PhD student in astrophysics at the University of Nottingham (1999-2003), and was a NERC Advanced Research Fellow in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading (2005-2013).

Hawkins is a professor of climate science at the University of Reading, where he is Academic Lead for Public Engagement and is affiliated with the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). He is a lead for WeatherRescue.org, a citizen science project in which human volunteers transcribe data from historical meteorological records for digital analysis.

Hawkins was a contributing author for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2014) and has been designated a lead author for the IPCC 6th Assessment Report.

On 9 May 2016, Hawkins published his climate spiral data visualization graphic, which was widely reported as having gone viral. The climate spiral was widely praised, Jason Samenow writing in The Washington Post that the spiral graph was "the most compelling global warming visualization ever made".

On 22 May 2018, Hawkins published his warming stripes data visualization graphic, which has been used by meteorologists in Climate Central's annual #MetsUnite campaign to raise public awareness of global warming during broadcasts on the summer solstice. Hawkins' similar #ShowYourStripes initiative, in which the public could freely download and share graphics customized to specific countries or localities, was launched on 17 June 2019. The warming stripes graphic is used in the logo of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis (2019—).

Hawkins' climate spiral design was on the shortlist for the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2016, the design having been featured in the opening ceremony of the August 2016 Summer Olympics (Rio de Janeiro).

Hawkins was awarded the Royal Meteorological Society’s Climate Science Communication Prize in 2017.

Hawkins received the Royal Society's 2018 Kavli Medal "for significant contributions to understanding and quantifying natural climate variability and long-term climate change, and for actively communicating climate science and its various implications with broad audiences".

In July 2019, Hawkins was included in the Climate Home News list of ten climate influencers.

Hawkins was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours "For services to Climate Science and to Science Communication".