Bert Bolin

Bert Rickard Johannes Bolin (; 15 May 1925 – 30 December 2007) was a Swedish meteorologist who served as the first chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), from 1988 to 1997. He was professor of meteorology at Stockholm University from 1961 until his retirement in 1990.

Background Bolin was born in Nyköping, Sweden and graduated from Uppsala University in 1946. He earned a master's degree in 1949 and a doctorate in 1956, both in meteorology, at Stockholm University.

Bolin's marriage to Ulla Frykstrand ended in divorce in 1979; they had three children: Dan, Karina and Göran. from 1985. In 1987, the 500-page Brundtland Report which Bolin was involved with contributed to the setting up of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Under his chairmanship (from 1988 to 1997), the IPCC produced its First Assessment Report (1990) and Second Assessment Report (1995), contributing to the IPCC sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore. The first report led to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the second to the Kyoto Protocol.

He received many awards and honors for his work in climate research, including the International Meteorological Organization Prize (1981), Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal (1984), the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1988), the highest atmospheric science award of the American Meteorological Society, Körber European Science Prize (1990), the Milutin Milankovic Medal in 1993, and the Blue Planet Prize (1995), often considered as the Nobel Prize for environmental sciences. Bolin was a member of the Swedish, Norwegian (from 1975) and Russian Academies of Sciences.

In November 2007, shortly before his death, Bolin published the partly autobiographical A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.