An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Professor Albert Klein Tank

Albert is Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services.

Areas of expertise

  • Climate datasets
  • Current and historical climate trends
  • Climate change scenarios for the future

Current activities

As Director, Albert has responsibility for the strategic leadership of the Met Office Hadley Centre and its staff. He represents the work of the Centre to the external scientific community and Government sponsors and he represents Climate Science within the wider Met Office Science Programme as a member of the Science Management Team.

Career background

Albert has built an international reputation in climate science, particularly from his work in analyzing climate trends, developing observational datasets and producing the national climate change scenarios in the Netherlands.

Before joining the Met Office in February 2018, he has been based at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) for 25 years. He was head of the R&D department on Observations and Data Technology.

Albert completed his PhD on the topic: “Changing temperature and precipitation extremes in Europe’s climate of the 20th Century” at Utrecht University (the Netherlands) in 2004.

He has coordinated a number of EU science projects.

External recognition

Albert has been Coordinating Lead Author for the chapter on atmospheric observations in the IPCC-WGI Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR5) published in 2013. He was a Lead Author in the IPCC-WGI Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007. He is co-chair of the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices of WMO-CCL, WCRP-CLIVAR and JCOMM.

Albert was awarded the International Journal of Climatology Award for 2005, Royal Meteorological Society, UK.