Dr Thomas E. Downing (PhD, Geography, Clark University), Chief Executive Officer of the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership, (GCAP).

Thomas E. Downing was formerly Director of the Oxford Office of the Stockholm Environment Institute, Reader in Climate Policy in the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford, and has been the science advisor to the UK Climate Impacts Programme and UK Parliament. He also has been visiting professor in Oxford University in the School of Geography and Environment and Queen Elisabeth House.

His major interests are vulnerability and adaptation to climate change and climatic hazards, with an emphasis on developing good practice in actor-network approaches, from simple pathway narratives to agent-based social simulation. Recent projects include the Climate Safeguards System for the African Development Bank and development of private sector models of adaptation for the Interamerican Development Bank. He leads the Oxford Adaptation Academy, in partnership with the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.

He has published over 100 papers, books, reports and book reviews, including the Atlas of Climate Change (with Kirstin Dow). His most exciting challenge is developing a distributed community of practice on climate adaptation through the Adaptation Academy and advanced knowledge management services.