astronomy

Piers Forster

Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster rather than just read about it. In short: Piers Maxwell de Ferranti Forster is a British climate scientist who is a Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds. A physicist by training, his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Piers Maxwell de Ferranti Forster is a British climate scientist who is a Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds. A physicist by training, his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds. He is best known for his work on radiative forcing, climate sensitivity, aviation-climate effects, climate engineering, climate modelling and carbon budgets. He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, including acting as a Lead Author for the Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports, and a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Report. He also acted as a Lead Author of the IPCC 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. He leads an international effort to annually update climate indictors, the Indicators of Global Climate Change project. Forster was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2026.

Career Forster was educated at Imperial College London, where he gained a BSc in physics in 1990. He was subsequently awarded a PhD in meteorology by the University of Reading in 1994. After research posts at the Universities of Reading, Colorado and Melbourne he was appointed a Reader at the University of Leeds in 2005. He has been Professor of Physical Climate Change at Leeds since 2008. Forster led the EU Horizon CONSTRAIN project and was principal investigator of the Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals project. He has doubts as to whether geoengineering could be deployed effectively. Forster is also trustee of a UK rainforest-protection charity United Bank of Carbon. He has a number of UK government and industry roles including being a member of the UK Climate Change Committee. From 2023 until 2025, he was interim Chair of the Committee, succeeding Lord Deben. Forster was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to Tackling Climate Change.

Awards 2011 Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award 2019 American Geophysical Union Fellow 2023 Natural Environment Research Council Societal Impact Award Winner 2019, 2020, 2021,2022, 2023, 2024 Clarivate Web of Science, Highly Cited Researcher 2024 Royal Meteorological Society, Climate Science and Climate Science Communication Award 2026 Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2026 Fellow of the Royal Society

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Piers Forster

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster

In research: Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster 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: Piers Forster is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic staff of the University of Melbourne, Academics of the University of Leeds, Academics of the University of Reading, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Piers Forster in simple terms?

Why does Piers Forster 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 Piers Forster?

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 Piers Forster.