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Mann, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in May. 

Credit: Grace Chen

Penn professor Michael Mann was recently elected a fellow of The Royal Society.

Mann — a Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science — joins more than 90 other global researchers who have also been recognized for their contributions to the advancement of knowledge in mathematics, engineering science, and medical science. Mann’s research has focused on human-induced climate change, as well as climate education and policy. 

“I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society," Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, said in the announcement.

“This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry.”

The Royal Society — the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences — elected fellows from countries including Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, and Singapore this year. 

Mann’s notable 1990s research mapped temperature changes over the past 1,000 years, acknowledging the contributions of humans toward global warming and placing Mann “at the center of the climate change debate.” Mann has authored six books — which are “Dire Predictions,” “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars,” “The Madhouse Effect,” “The Tantrum that Saved the World,” “The New Climate War”, and "Our Fragile Moment.” He's also contributed to over 500 peer-reviewed and edited publications. 

Mann is a co-founder and current contributor of RealClimate.org, a blog launched in 2004 dedicated to facilitating discussions on climatology. The blog also serves as a platform for climate scientists to provide commentary on climate science and change.

Mann has received several awards, including being selected as a leading visionary in science and technology by Scientific American in 2002, and being awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal from the European Geophysical Union in 2012. In 2019, Mann received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and in 2020, earned the World Sustainability Award of the MDPI Sustainability Foundation. Mann has also received recognition for his climate communication efforts from the National Center for Science Education and the American Geophysical Union.

In addition to The Royal Society, Mann is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Committee for Skeptical Injury. 

In February, Mann won a lawsuit against bloggers Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn. The case argued that, in a series of blog posts discrediting his climate change research in 2012, Simberg, a former adjunct fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Steyn, a contributor to the National Review, had defamed him. Simberg and Steyn were both found guilty had to pay one dollar each in compensatory damages and $1 million and $1,000 in punitive damages, respectively.