Adrian Spence

Dr. Spence is a Senior Research Scientist at the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS). He is an internationally recognized biogeochemist and regional leader in terrestrial carbon cycling. His current areas of research include (but not limited to) measurement, reporting and verification of land-based GHG emissions, as well as land-based climate change mitigation and adaptation options. Adrian has provided technical services to the governments of Barbados, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Locally, he serves as a director on both public and private sector boards and plays crucial roles in Jamaica’s REDD+ readiness and efforts to quantify carbon emissions and removals form the land sector through land cover mapping. He also provides research/consultancy services on major projects funded by the World Bank, IDB, FAO, NCST, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and UNEP.

Additionally, Dr. Spence served as a Lead Author in the IPCC 6th Assessment Cycle. Among the awards received in recognition of his work, Dr. Spence is one of the authors of the IPCC 6 the Assessment Cycle that won the 2022 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity; the 2021 UWI, Mona Principals award for research project with greatest business potential; the 2019/2020 Faculty of Science and Technology, UWI, Mona award for his contribution to the IPCC Special Report on climate change and land; and the 2019 Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation award for outstanding contribution to the climate change research agenda as Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on climate change and land. Dr. Spence holds a PhD in Biogeochemistry from Dublin City University in collaboration with the University of Toronto, and an MPhiL in Biochemistry, BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology from University of the West Indies, Mona, and an ASc in General Agriculture from the College of Agriculture, Science, and Education.