Stephen Schneider, a leading climate expert, dead at 65

Schneider was influential in the public debate over climate change and a lead scientist on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

Stephen H. Schneider, a Stanford biology professor and a leading researcher in climate change, has died.

Schneider was flying from a science meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, to London today, July 19, when he apparently suffered a heart attack. He was 65.

He had been at Stanford University since 1992 and was a lead author among scientists on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

"Steve, more than anything, whether you agreed with him or not, forced us to confront this real possibility of climate change," said his colleague at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, Jeff Koseff.

Schneider was influential in the public debate over climate change and wrote a book, Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth’s Climate, about his experiences. He also wrote a book about his battle with leukemia, Patient from Hell.

He had been a White House consultant in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations.

He and Terry Root, his wife and collaborator, jointly won the 2003 National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation.

Schneider received his PhD in mechanical engineering and plasma physics from Columbia University in 1971. In 1975, he founded the journal Climatic Change. In 1992, he won a MacArthur Fellowship.

Arrangements for a memorial service are pending.