Director

Professor
Earth System science and sustainability
Phone: +61 (0)2 6125 4588
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: will.steffen@anu.edu.au

Will Steffen, a US-born Australian citizen, began his career as a chemical engineer with a BSc from the University of Missouri. He holds MSc (1972) and PhD (1975) degrees in chemistry from the University of Florida. Following a research fellowship at the Research School of Chemistry at ANU from 1977-1980, Steffen joined the CSIRO Division of Environmental Mechanics in the roles of science management, editing and communication.

In 1990 he took up the position of executive officer for the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). From 1998 to 2004 he was executive director of IGBP and was based in Stockholm, Sweden. The IGBP research effort involves about 10,000 scientists located in 80 countries around the world.

Steffen returned to Canberra in mid-2004 and took up a visiting fellowship with the Bureau of Rural Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australian Government. He also became science adviser to the Australian Greenhouse Office, a position he still holds. In October 2005 Steffen returned to the ANU as director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES).

Research, Teaching & Professional Activities

Will Steffen's research interests span a broad range within the field of Earth System science, with a special emphasis on terrestrial ecosystem interactions with global change, the global carbon cycle, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis, and sustainability and the Earth System. His work usually takes a synthesis/integration approach to complex questions about the evolution of the human-environment relationship, often working with teams of researchers within the School, across ANU and internationally.

Steffen has given numerous presentations on climate change, global change and Earth System science to political and business leaders as well as community groups. He serves as chair of the International Advisory Board, QUEST (Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System) programme, UK, and has membership on the International Advisory Panel, Earth and Sun System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA; the Advisory Panel of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology; and the National Committee for Earth System Science, Australian Academy of Science. He is a visiting researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden.

Selected Publications

Steffen, W., Sanderson, A., Tyson, P.D., Jäger, J., Matson, P., Moore III, B., Oldfield, F., Richardson, K., Schellnhuber, H.-J., Turner II, B.L. and Wasson, R.J. (2004). Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. The IGBP Book Series, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 336 pp.

Steffen, W., Andreae, M.O., Bolin, B., Crutzen, P.J., Cox, P., Cubasch, U., Held, H., Nakicenovic, N., Scholes, R., Talaue-McManus, L., Turner II, B.L. (2004) Abrupt changes: the Achilles heels of the Earth System. Environment, 46 (No. 3): 9-20.

Gordon, L.J., Steffen, W., Jönsson, B.F., Folke, C., Falkenmark, M. and Johannessen, Å. (2005) Human modification of global water vapor flows from the land surface. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 102: 7612-7617.

Steffen, W. (2006) Stronger evidence but new challenges: climate change science 2001-2005. The Australian Greenhouse Office, Australian Government, Canberra, 28 pp.

Costanza, R., Graumlich, L. and Steffen, W. (eds) (2006) Integrated History and Future of People on Earth, Dahlem Workshop Report 96, 495 pp.

Steffen, W., Love, G. and Whetton, P. (2006) Approaches to defining dangerous climate change: a southern hemisphere perspective. In: H.J. Schellnhuber, H.J., Cramer, W., Nakicenovic, N., Wigley, T. and Yohe, G. (eds) Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, pp. 219-225.

Crutzen, P.C. and Steffen, W. (2003) How long have we been in the Anthropocene Era? Climatic Change 61: 251-257

Piketh, S.J., Tyson, P.D. and Steffen, W. (2000): Aeolian transport from southern Africa and iron fertilisation of marine biota in the South Indian Ocean. South African Journal of Science 96: 244-246.

Walker, B.H., Steffen, W.L. and Langridge, J. (1999). Interactive and integrated effects of global change on terrestrial ecosystems. In: Walker, Brian, Steffen, Will, Canadell, Josep, and Ingram, John (eds.) Global Change and the Terrestrial Biosphere: Implications for Natural and Managed Ecosystems. A Synthesis of GCTE and Related Research. IGBP Book Series No. 4, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 329-375.

Falkowski, P., Scholes, R.J., Boyle, E., Canadell, J., Canfield, D., Elser, J., Gruber, N., Hibbard, K., Högberg, P., Linder, S., Mackenzie, F.T., Moore III, B., Pedersen, T., Rosenthal, Y., Seitzinger, S., Smetacek, V. and Steffen, W. (2000) The global carbon cycle: A test of our knowledge of Earth as a system. Science, 290: 291-296.