Dr Michael James Salinger (better known as Jim Salinger), has been named as the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Te Pou Whakarae o Aotearoa.

One of the first scientists to address global warming, Jim has been involved for almost 50 years in research and analysis of climate change and variability and its impact.

He was the lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, which collectively was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.

His contributions to the  climate debate have included lead authorship of most New Zealand-based scenarios “to facilitate impact and policy studies”.

In 2019 he was awarded the NZIAHS Jubilee Medal in recognition of his lifetime achievements in climate and agricultural science and he is a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand, an author, and has published extensively in academic journals.

He currently is an adjunct research fellow with the School of Geography, Environmental and Earth Sciences at Victoria University.