Trevor McDougall, from Adelaide University start, boosts climate science with work on ocean thermodynamics
Adelaide University mechanical engineering graduate Trevor McDougall, with PhD studies in applied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge University, made his international mark in ocean thermodynamics, furthering climate science.
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Trevor McDougall from South Australia became a highly-honoured internationally-recognised authority on ocean thermodynamics, furthering climate science.
After attending Adelaide’s Unley High School, McDougall went to St Mark’s College in North Adelaide and graduated from Adelaide University in mechanical engineering in 1973. McDougall did his doctor of philosophy studies in applied mathematics and theoretical physics at St John’s College, Cambridge University, where he was supervised by professors Stewart Turner and Paul Linden.
In 1978, McDougall returned to Australia on a Queen's fellowship in marine science at the research school of Earth sciences at Australian National University in Canberra. Five years later, he joined the CSIRO (commonwealth science and industrial research organisation) in Hobart as a physical oceanographer. From 2012, he was scientia professor of ocean physics in the school of mathematics and statistics at the University of New South Wales.
McDougall's research in physical oceanography gave insights into how seawater mixed under different conditions, important for understanding climate change. His work was concerned with how the ocean reduced the equator-to-pole temperature differences, thus making Earth habitable. He developed, with David Jackett, an algorithm for defining the mixing of neutral density surfaces. Turbulent mixing in the ocean was 10 million times stronger along "density" surfaces than in the direction across these surfaces. The accurate modelling of the ocean’s role in climate relied on accurately defining and evaluate these surfaces. McDougall also contributed significantly to incorporating mixing and heat into ocean models.
McDougall was president (2019-23) of the International Association for the Physical Science of the Oceans of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. He chaired the organisations’ working group developing the international standard definitions of the thermodynamic properties of seawater, humid air, and ice, adopted by the intergovernmental oceanographic commission in 2009.
McDougall was elected a fellow of Royal Society (2012), Australian Academy of Science (1997), CSIRO (2007), Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (2004), Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom (2012), Royal Society of New South Wales (2015), American Geophysical Union (2018) and International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (2023).
His honours included: 2023 New South Wales Scientist of the Year, Prime Minister’s Prize for Science 2022, Prize of Excellence, Werner Petersen Foundation, Germany, 2018: Companion of the Order of Australia in 2018; New South Wales Premier's Prize for excellence in mathematics, Earth sciences, chemistry and physics, 2017; John Conrad Jaeger Medal 2015, awarded by the Australian Academy of Science; Henry Houghton chair for visiting senior Earth scientists, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015; Australian Laureate Fellowship 2015, awarded by the Australian Research Council; Royal Society of Tasmania Medal 2013; 2011 Prince Albert Medal from International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans; Anton Bruhn Medal 2009, from the intergovernmental oceanographic commission; 2005 A.G. Huntsman award for excellence in marine sciences, from Royal Society of Canada; 2001 Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and science in marine science; 1998 M.R. Banks Medal, from Royal Society of Tasmania; 1997 Humboldt Prize, from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany; 1988 Frederick White Prize from Australian Academy of Science; 1976 J.T. Knight Prize from Cambridge University; 1975 South Australian engineering design award, with Garry L. Brown, from Engineers Australia.