McBean: International Council for Science president-elect
The International Council for Science [ICSU] appointed Gordon McBean president-elect during their General Assembly in Rome, Italy, which was held between 24 September and 1 October this year.
McBean, a geography and political science professor at the University of Western Ontario, is a noted expert in the fields of climate change and risk reduction. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he currently also serves as the chair of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences and the director of Western’s Policy Studies Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
McBean will begin his time as president-elect early in 2013, serving under the current ICSU president, Yuan Tseh Lee, and will become president of the council in 2014. McBean’s opponent in the elections was Luciano Maiani, the noted Italian physicist.
The International Council for Science, a non-governmental organization which dates back to 1931, exists to strengthen international science, for the benefit of society. The ICSU’s membership consists of 121 national scientific bodies, which represent 141 countries, and 30 International Scientific Unions.
