Professor Tim Benton is Research Director in Emerging Risks, and leads the Energy, Environment and Resources programme at Chatham House. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow, when he was also dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. From 2011-2016 he was the “champion” of the UK’s Global Food Security programme which was a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies (government departments, devolved governments and research councils) with an interest in the challenges around food. He has worked with UK governments, the EU and G20.

He has been a global agenda steward of the World Economic Forum and is an author of the IPCC’s “Special Report on Food, Land and Climate” (2019), and the UK’s “Climate Change Risk Assessments”.

He has published more than 150 academic papers, many tackling how ecological, evolutionary and human systems respond to environmental change. His work on sustainability leadership has been recognised with an honorary fellowship of the UK’s Society for the Environment, and a doctorate honoris causa from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He retains a professorship in population ecology at the University of Leeds.

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