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Prof Mark New has received the accolade of being the National Champion for South Africa 2023 by the Frontiers Planet Prize.  

The Frontiers Planet Prize is a global competition where three prizes of 1 million Swiss Francs are awarded to scientists whose research contributes to helping humanity stay within the safe operating space of our Earth’s system. The Prize aims to recognise, encourage, and reward exceptional scientists whose work contributes toward a sustainable planet. The ambition of the Foundation is to boost sustainability research and, much like the Olympics, foster a passionate competition between scientists, universities, and nations. 

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) is the National Representative Body (NRB) for the Frontiers Planet Prize and nominated Prof Mark New for the Prize. The Panel endorsed Prof Mark New’s paper titled, "Nature-based solutions in mountain catchments reduce impact of anthropogenic climate change on drought streamflow".

Prof New, University of Cape Town (UCT), was appointed Pro-VC for Climate Change and Director of the African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) in July 2011. He holds a joint appointment as Professor of  International Development at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. His research focuses on climate change detection, processes, scenarios, impacts and adaptation.  He sits on the SA Global Change Science Committee, the Africa Future Earth Science Committee,  is on the editorial board of Environmental Research Letters, and has served on various other science committees and reference groups.

In his research on climate change monitoring and detection he has worked on the development of global and regional climate datasets which have underpinned climate impacts assessments and integrated modelling, the detection of climate extremes, and issues around uncertainty and accuracy of climate data.

His research on impacts and adaptation has addressed broader adaptation policy issues around high-end climate change and dangerous climate impacts, approaches to adaptation decision making under uncertainty. Much of this work has been applied through the lens of water resource planning, such as in the EPSRC project he leads, ARCC-Water – Adaptive and Resilient Water Systems.

Issued by Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)