Michael Mann named inaugural vice provost for climate science, policy, and action

Michael Mann, presidential distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, has been named Penn’s first vice provost for climate science, policy, and action. 

Penn created the new role to implement In Principle and Practice, a strategic framework launched last fall to support and strengthen the University’s mission to be forward-thinking and engaged with the community. As the inaugural vice provost, Mann will lead institutional efforts to support sustainability, draw from Penn’s academic strengths in the sciences and public policy, and advance scholarship and training. His appointment will be effective Nov. 1.

Mann is widely recognized for his research on climate science and climate change. He first joined Penn in 2022 from Penn State University, where he was a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and director of the Earth System Science Center. 

He is an elected member of both the National Academy Sciences and the United Kingdom’s Royal Society. In 2019, he won the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, which is known as the most prominent international award in the environmental science field. He is also the recipient of the 2023 John Scott Award from the Franklin Institute and the City of Philadelphia. 

Additionally, Mann has published six award-winning books on climate change, including “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet” in 2021.  

In the announcement, Provost John Jackson Jr. called Mann “one of the world’s leading experts in climate change and sustainability.”

Prior to his appointment, Mann was one of the faculty members on the committee to select the vice provost for climate science, policy, and action. However, he withdrew from the committee, choosing to be a candidate instead.

“I couldn’t be more honored to help lead Penn forward in its mission to address the defining challenge of our time,” Mann told Penn Today. “In doing so, we honor the legacy of our founder, Benjamin Franklin — a statesman, a scholar, a scientist, and an environmentalist — as we proudly seek to make a better world.”