World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) recently announced that the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) had elected Professor Detlef Stammer as its Chair and Dr Helen Cleugh as its Vice-chair for two years.

Detlef Stammer is a Professor at the Institute of Oceanography and the Director of the Center for Earth System Sciences and Sustainability (CEN), both at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Detlef was appointed to the JSC this year and is also co-chair of the WCRP Grand Challenge on Regional Sea-level Change and Coastal Impacts. Previously, he co-chaired the Scientific Steering Group of WCRP's Climate and Ocean Variability, Predictability and Change (CLIVAR) Core Project.

Detlef Stammer sincerely thanked the entire JSC for the trust and confidence they placed in him. He went on to say, "As a team, we can make significant progress and give WCRP strong support and leadership. I am very much looking forward to working with the international climate community to advance our understanding of the climate system thereby helping society to meet the challenges of climate impacts."

Detlef received a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the Institute of Oceanography, Kiel. In 1993 he took a postdoctoral position at MIT, where he subsequently became Principal Research Scientist. In 1999 he was appointed to a tenured faculty position at Scripps Institut of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Detlef remained in America until 2003, when he returned to Germany to take up a Professorship at the Institue for Oceanography at the University of Hamburg. He is now Professor, Head of Remote Sensing and Assimilation and Director of the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Detlef's research interests include the role of the ocean in climate variability and sea level change.