Peter Liss is an environmental scientist with an interest in biogeochemical interactions between ocean and atmosphere. In particular, Peter studies the process of air–sea gas exchange and the mechanisms of trace gas formation in the oceans, as well as their role and reactivity in the atmosphere. His work is helping to answer important questions about climate and other global changes.

He is a pioneer in the field of global biogeochemical cycles, greatly contributing to knowledge of the cycles of silicon, the halogens, sulfur and selenium. A prominent international biogeochemist, he chairs several scientific committees and is a member of Defra’s Science Advisory Council and a former member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. From 2013–2014, he was a Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study Fellow and was recently Executive Director of the International Council for Science.

Peter received the Challenger Society Medal in 2000 and the John Jeyes Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2003. In 2008, he was made a CBE in recognition of his services to science.