Dr Philip Stier

Fellow and Tutor in Physics

I am a Tutorial Fellow in physics at Oriel College and a University Lecturer in climate change in the Department of Physics of the University of Oxford. I joined Oriel in 2007 after appointments at the California Institute of Technology (USA) and at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (Germany).

Physics, from Latin physica ‘natural things', is key to an understanding of the complex climate system. As climate researchers, we are facing the problem that our "laboratory" is practically the entire earth, which makes observations challenging and does not allow for experiments - although one could see the continued greenhouse gas emissions just as this. Almost every aspect of the climate system involves physics, from the formation of light scattering molecular clusters in the atmosphere, to global atmospheric or oceanic fluid dynamics.

My research is devoted to improve the fundamental understanding about the global climate system, as basis for higher accuracy estimates of the impact of anthropogenic perturbations. In my Climate Processes research group in the sub-department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics we employ advanced computer models of the atmosphere in synergy with measurement data from satellites, aircraft and ground based instruments to gain insights into the complex field of clouds, aerosols, their interactions and the resulting impact on the climate system.