About Roy Kershaw

Roy Kershaw

Areas of expertise:

• Tropical Meteorology

• Atmospheric Convection

• Modelling

• Parametrization 

Publications by Roy

Areas of expertise

• Tropical Meteorology 
• Atmospheric Convection 
• Modelling 
• Parametrization

Current activities

Roy is Head of the Atmospheric Processes and Parametrizations section. Teams within the section develop our understanding of physical processes in the atmosphere and our ability to represent them in the Met Office Unified Model. Roy co-ordinates the work of these teams to deliver improved weather forecasts and climate predictions.

Career background

Roy joined the Met Office in 1974, immediately after obtaining a Maths degree from Oxford. After 6 months on the Scientific Officers Course at Shinfield, he first worked on Data Assimilation (when it was still called Objective Analysis), learning the intricacies of programming what was then a state of the art computer, the IBM 360/195.

After a spell as a weather forecaster for two years, first in the Central Forecast Office at Bracknell and then at Heathrow, he moved to his first real research job, in tropical meteorology, working on the simulation of monsoons in climate and weather forecasting models. This was followed by several years at the Met Office College, as Deputy Principal, teaching the SO Course and helping to run what was then a residential facility.

Next he set up the Met Office's Convection Modelling Group at JCMM, Reading University, in the early 1990s. In the mid 90s he moved to the Hadley Centre to take over one of the model development groups, working on the parametrization of atmospheric processes in the Unified Model

Shortly before relocation of the Met Office to Exeter, Roy became the first Head of the newly formed Atmospheric Processes and Parametrizations section, uniting modelling studies of atmospheric processes with development of representations of those same processes in the UM. He became Head of Observations Based Research for three years from 2007, broadening his experience of research and managing the budget of this important area of our science. He moved back to lead APP Section in 2010.  

External Recognition

Roy is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and served as Editor of the Quarterly Journal of the RMS for several years, and on the Publications and Awards Committees.