Michael Lockwood is a physicist who has made major advances in the study of the Earth’s atmosphere and its interaction with the Sun’s magnetic field. He discovered that the level of magnetism and energy from the Sun are correlated, and that the magnetism more than doubled in the 1900s. His findings are key for climate change studies.

Michael is also distinguished for his use of spacecraft to investigate the flow of particles from one part of the atmosphere into another — the ionosphere (the upper part that can be ionised by the Sun) into the magnetosphere (the Earth’s magnetic field). His work allows the prediction of atmospheric behaviour.

He has openly criticised those in the scientific field who do not see the need for human action against climate change. He has published several hundred papers, notably in 2007 in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, on solar data over the last 40 years. He is Professor of Space Environment Physics at the University of Reading.