Professor Penny Endersby, CEO of the Met Office, has been announced as the winner of the 2021 Society Medal, awarded by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
BCS said this recognises her outstanding contribution to making digital technology good for society and the environment.
The award panel cited her exceptional commitment to enriching weather forecasting and the predictive analysis of climate change by leading an unprecedented investment in the Met Office’s IT systems. It said the introduction of the new supercomputing capability, overseen by Endersby, will take forecasting and climate projections to the next level when up and running later this year.
Climate change modelling run through the supercomputer will help inform Government policy as part of the UK’s fight against climate change and its efforts to reach net zero by 2050.
As a visiting professor in Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University, Endersby has also demonstrated a long term commitment to computing education and the development of world class data scientists.
Inspirational leader
Kathy Farndon, chair of BCS’ society board, said: “Professor Endersby’s outstanding and inspirational leadership has put the Met Office at the leading edge of data science and modelling on climate change. Her support and investment in skilled IT professionals and data scientists, throughout the organisation, is equally impressive and is a source of pride to everyone in our industry.”
Endersby commented: “The Met Office is committed to aligning our own activities to the urgency of reducing human caused climate change, and that includes our use of environmentally responsible IT. We aim to reach net zero by 2030 while at the same time offering our expertise and support to other organisations on their own road to net zero.”
Image from BCS
