EPSRC CENTRE FOR DOCTORAL TRAINING IN THE MATHEMATICS OF PLANET EARTH AT IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON AND THE UNIVERSITY OF READING

我们的环境对人类活动的各个方面都有重大影响，从平常的事情，比如决定是骑自行车还是乘公共汽车去上班，到特殊的事情，比如应对极端自然现象（热带风暴、洪水、海啸、干旱等）日益严重的破坏性影响。此外，气候变化是当今人类面临的最紧迫挑战之一。曾经被认为是未来可能发生的事情，现在已经成为日常生活的一部分。由于气候变率和变化的大多数影响是通过极端天气事件和极端天气发生的，因此天气和气候这两个问题是密切相关的。我们依靠科学技术来提供管理复杂环境的手段，并应对气候变化的紧迫挑战。数学在这项浩大的工程中起着核心作用，因为它为天气、海洋和气候的理论和建模提供了基本基础。然而，数学挑战的性质正在发生变化，对在风险和不确定性方面受过训练的科学家的需求正在迅速增长。满足这些需求只能通过培养全新一代的科学家来实现，以应对多方面的挑战，以及它们之间所有复杂的相互依赖关系。这些科学家将需要在几个科学领域进行非常广泛的训练，包括地球物理流体动力学、科学计算、统计学、数据同化和偏微分方程。最重要的是，他们必须理解统一他们的数学。帝国理工学院数学系、格兰瑟姆气候变化研究所与雷丁大学数学系、统计学系和气象系的联合，使这两个机构处于一个独特的地位，可以提供一个专注于优先领域的CDT：天气、海洋和气候的数学科学，作为一个50-50的合资企业。我们建议将60多名世界领先的研究人员聚集在一起，作为中心的学术主管和利益相关者，他们在广泛的领域拥有专业知识，包括数学基础和前沿应用领域。该提案的中心目标是建立一支强大的年轻科学家队伍，他们的背景将跨越数学科学的广度，从统计学、偏微分方程和动力系统、科学计算、数据分析和随机过程，包括天气、海洋和气候等相关应用领域。这些年轻的科学家还必须通过两个机构和外部合作伙伴提供的一系列选修课程和管理专业知识来获得具体问题的知识。队列培训的一个核心组成部分将是由位于埃克塞特的英国气象局（Met Office）主办的一个为期10周的项目，其中包括由世界领先的科学家授课，以及与英国气象局员工一起进行研究实习，通过团队合作解决现实世界的项目。拟议CDT的主要合作伙伴包括天气、海洋和气候研究和业务预报方面的主要国际参与者，包括英国气象局、欧洲中期天气预报中心、德国DWD、国家大气科学中心和国家地球观测中心。EPSRC对该中心的捐款将与机构和外部合作伙伴密切配合，其财政承诺估计占总成本的65%。该提案也与全球倡议“行星地球数学2013”相一致，该倡议涉及世界各地的科学协会、大学、研究所和组织，旨在更多地了解我们星球面临的挑战，并加大对这些问题的研究力度。

Our environment has a major influence on all aspects of human endeavour ranging from the mundane, such as deciding whether to cycle or take the bus to work, to the exceptional, such as coping with the ever more damaging effects of extreme natural phenomena (tropical storms, inundations, tsunamis, droughts, etc.). In addition, climate change is one of the most pressing challenges that confront humanity today. What was once viewed as something that might happen in the future is now part of daily life. Because most impacts of climate variability and change occur through extreme weather events and spells, the two issues of weather and climate are closely interlinked. We rely on science and technology to provide the means of managing the complex intricacies of the environment and to meet the pressing challenges of climate change. Mathematics plays a central role in this massive undertaking as it provides the fundamental basis of the theory and modelling of weather, oceans and climate. However the nature of the mathematical challenges is changing and the need for scientists trained in risk and uncertainty is growing rapidly. Meeting these needs can only be achieved by training an entirely new generation of scientists to meet the multi-faceted challenges, with all their complex inter-dependencies. These scientists will need extraordinarily broad training in several scientific areas, including geophysical fluid dynamics, scientific computing, statistics, data assimilation and partial differential equations. Above all, they must understand the mathematics that unifies them.The alignment of Imperial College's Mathematics Department and Grantham Institute for Climate Change with Reading University's Departments of Mathematics and Statistics and of Meteorology has put these two institutions into a unique position to offer a CDT focussing on the priority area: Mathematical Sciences for Weather, Ocean and Climate, as a 50-50 joint venture. We propose to bring together, as academic supervisors and stakeholders in the centre, more than 60 world-leading researchers with expertise in a wide spectrum of areas that comprise the mathematical foundation as well as the frontier application areas.The central aim of the proposal is to build a strong cohort of young scientists whose backgrounds will span the breadth of the mathematical sciences from statistics, PDEs and dynamical systems, scientific computing, data analysis, and stochastic processes including relevant application areas from weather, oceans and climate. These young scientists must also acquire problem-specific knowledge through an array of elective courses and supervisory expertise offered by the two institutions and the external partners. A core component of the cohort training will be a ten-week programme hosted by the Met Office in Exeter which will include lectures given by world-leading scientists and research internships with Met Office staff, tackling real-world projects by teamwork.Key partners to the proposed CDT include major international players in research and operational forecasting for weather, oceans, and climate, including the UK Met Office, the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, the German DWD, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the National Centre for Earth Observation. The EPSRC contribution to the Centre will be heavily leveraged with institutional and external partners, whose financial commitments are estimated to cover 65% of the total costs.The proposal is also in alignment with the global initiative Mathematics of the Planet Earth 2013 which involves scientific societies, universities, institutes and organizations all over the world aiming to learn more about the challenges faced by our planet and to increase the research effort on these issues.