Philip Woodworth

Philip Leslie Woodworth MBE is a British oceanographer based at the National Oceanography Centre.^[1] His research interests include sea level variation, climatology, and the global development of sea level monitoring networks.^[1]

Early life and education

Woodworth studied for a degree in Physics at Durham University (Hatfield College), graduating in 1970.^[2] He went on to complete a doctorate at the University of Birmingham in 1974.^[3]

Career

Woodworth's initial training was in particle physics and early in his career he spent some time based at CERN.^[4] He has been associated with the National Oceanography Centre (formerly the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory) since 1983.^[4]

From 1987 to 2007 Woodworth was the Director of the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level – the global data bank for recording sea-level change.^[5] His role involved working with the Environment Agency to provide tidal analysis for UK coastal waters.^[5] He has worked closely with the IPCC, and was the lead author on the sea-level chapter for the second and third assessment reports.^[5] In 2005, he challenged the views of Nils-Axel Mörner, arguing that rising sea levels do pose a genuine threat to the future of The Maldives.^[6] In 2010, he completed research in the Falkland Islands which found that sea level around the islands had risen significantly since the mid-19th century, with the rate of rise accelerating in recent decades.^[7]

Woodworth was awarded the Vening Meinesz Medal of the European Geosciences Union in 2010 and received an MBE in the 2011 New Year Honours.^[8]

Bibliography

• Church, John A.; Woodworth, Philip L.; Aarup, Thorkild; Wilson, W. Stanley, eds. (2010). Understanding Sea-Level Rise and Variability. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781444334517.
• Pugh, David; Woodworth, Philip (2014). Sea-Level Science: Understanding Tides, Surges, Tsunamis and Mean Sea-Level Changes (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107028197.

See also

• Keith R. Thompson – Professor of Oceanography
• David Thomas Pugh – English marine scientist (1943–2022)