astronomy

John Shepherd (earth scientist)

John Shepherd (earth scientist) is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Shepherd (earth scientist) rather than just read about it. In short: John Graham Shepherd (born 1946) CBE FRS is a British Earth system scientist, Emeritus Professor at University of Southampton, and a former director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. He has worked on a wide range of environment-related topics, including the transport of chemical tracers in the atmospheric boundary layer and in the deep ocean, the management of marine fish stocks, and the dynamics of…

Key takeaways

John Shepherd (earth scientist) belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Shepherd (earth scientist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Shepherd (earth scientist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Graham Shepherd (born 1946) CBE FRS is a British Earth system scientist, Emeritus Professor at University of Southampton, and a former director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. He has worked on a wide range of environment-related topics, including the transport of chemical tracers in the atmospheric boundary layer and in the deep ocean, the management of marine fish stocks, and the dynamics of the Earth system. More recently he led a comprehensive review of geoengineering for the Royal Society.

Early life and education Shepherd was born in 1946 in Croydon in south London, and attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School, a grammar school in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He studied Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, initially taking physics, mathematics, chemistry and crystallography before specialising and graduating in theoretical physics in 1967. He remained at Cambridge for doctoral studies in the Cavendish Laboratory supervised by Brian Pippard on superconductivity. He completed his doctorate in 1971 with a thesis on superconductivity. During his time at Cambridge, Shepherd also competed for Pembroke College on the British quiz show University Challenge as part of a team that included the Australian essayist, Clive James.

Career Immediately following his doctoral studies, Shepherd took a research position with the Central Electricity Generating Board to study atmospheric physics and air pollution. In 1974, he moved to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to undertake research into the marine disposal of radioactive waste. In 1976, his research within MAFF changed direction towards mathematical modelling of fishing fleet operations and fish population dynamics, a focus which continued until the 1990s. During 1978–1979, Shepherd first became a visiting researcher at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University, a sabbatical activity that he later returned to in 1999. Through the 1980s, he rose through the ranks of MAFF, ultimately reaching the position of deputy director in 1989, a role in which he was tasked with the assessment and management of fish stocks, and directly provided advice to MAFF Ministers. During this period, Shepherd also served in a succession of International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) working groups and advisory committees on fisheries matters. In 1994, Shepherd left MAFF to become the first director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, then known as the Southampton Oceanography Centre, in the Hampshire city of Southampton. The creation of this centre brought together the Natural Environment Research Council's National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) into a single, purpose-built facility, located within the dock area of the city. During his tenure as director, 1994–1999, Shepherd served, in part, to bring together these two formerly separate organisations into a single collaborative institution. At the conclusion of his term as director, Shepherd became Professor of Marine Sciences within the University of Southampton as well as director of the Earth System Modelling Initiative (1999–2006). From 2006, he assumed a part-time role as a professorial research fellow in Earth System Science at Southampton. In parallel, Shepherd became deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (2000–2010), and began annual visits to LDEO as an adjunct senior research scientist (1999–). Shepherd has served as the member or chair of a number of committees for organisations including NERC, DEFRA, Cefas, DECC and IFREMER. These have largely centred on fisheries, but a number have concerned off-shore operation of oil and gas infrastructures, in particular technology, decommissioning and regulation. Shepherd is a current board member of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, formed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. From 2000 to 2002, Shepherd served as president of the Challenger Society for Marine Science.

Awards and honours In 1999, Shepherd was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and subsequently served as member of its study into ocean acidification (2005) and as the chair of its study into geoengineering (2009). He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), as well as a Chartered Mathematician (1991). In 2010 was awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to science.

References

External links University of Southampton homepage Biography, personal webpage

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Shepherd (earth scientist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Shepherd (earth scientist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Shepherd (earth scientist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Shepherd (earth scientist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Shepherd (earth scientist)

In research: John Shepherd (earth scientist) appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Shepherd (earth scientist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Shepherd (earth scientist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1946 births, 21st-century British earth scientists, Academics of the University of Southampton, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Shepherd (earth scientist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Shepherd (earth scientist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Shepherd (earth scientist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Shepherd (earth scientist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Shepherd (earth scientist) in simple terms?

Why does John Shepherd (earth scientist) matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Shepherd (earth scientist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Shepherd (earth scientist).