BBSRC Council observer and NERC Council member
Professor Gideon Henderson is an observer on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Council and a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Council.
Gideon is a geochemist working to understand the chemical cycles of carbon, nutrients, pollutants and their interaction in the climate system. Present areas of interest include the rates of chemical processes in the ocean, and assessment of techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. He also has a long-standing interest in the use of novel measurements on natural archives to quantify climate processes important for future change (such as sea level, rainfall patterns, permafrost stability).
Gideon helped initiate the international programme GEOTRACES, which has revolutionised knowledge of the chemical cycling of metals in the ocean, and was co-chair of this programme for its first decade.
He is a professor at the Department of Earth Sciences (of which he was Head 2013 to 2017) at the University of Oxford. He also holds a senior research fellowship at University College Oxford, and an associate position at Columbia University, USA. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013.
Gideon became Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in October 2019, where he is responsible for overseeing the quality of evidence that the department relies on for policy decisions. He also provides ministers with scientific advice and sets the priorities for scientific research and innovation.
Last updated: 25 August 2023