Trevor John McDougall

alma_mater = doctoral_advisors = workplaces = University of New South Wales

Trevor John McDougall is an Australian physical oceanographer specialising in ocean mixing and the thermodynamics of seawater. He is Emeritus Scientia Professor of Ocean Physics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, The ocean and the atmosphere play roughly equal roles in transporting heat from the equatorial region to the poles, and McDougall's research is concerned with how the ocean reduces the equator-to-pole temperature differences, thus making Earth habitable.

McDougall is known for developing, together with David Jackett, an algorithm for defining neutral density surfaces. These are the surfaces along which swirling ocean eddies — that are 10–500 kilometres wide and persist for many months — mix. The rate of turbulent mixing in the ocean is a factor of ten million times stronger along "density" surfaces than in the direction across these surfaces. The accurate modelling of the ocean’s role in climate relies on being able to accurately define and evaluate these surfaces.

He was president of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics from 2019-2023 and is past president for 2023-2027. He chaired the working group of SCOR and IAPSO that developed the international standard definitions of the thermodynamic properties of seawater, humid air, and ice (TEOS-10, Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater - 2010), which were adopted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2009.

Awards and honours McDougall was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012. He is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1997), the CSIRO (2007), the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (2004), the Institute of Physics (UK) (2012), the Royal Society of New South Wales (2015), the American Geophysical Union (2018), the American Meteorological Society (2027), and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (2023). He was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the European Geosciences Union in 2025. His other awards include: Zillman Medal, 2025, awarded by the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society to a scientist who has made a substantial learned research contribution in Australia Alfred Wegener Medal, 2025, awarded by the European Geosciences Union, for outstanding contributions to ocean science that have fundamentally changed how we understand the ocean and its role in shaping the Earth’s climate 2023 NSW Scientist of the Year, awarded by the Premier of New South Wales, Australia. for his discovery of four new ocean mixing processes and his work to define the thermodynamic properties of seawater Prize of Excellence, Werner Petersen Foundation, Germany, 2018. 100px Companion of the Order of Australia in 2018 for eminent service to science, and to education, particularly in the area of ocean thermodynamics, as an academic, and researcher, to furthering the understanding of climate science, and as a mentor of young scientists. New South Wales Premier's Prize for Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Physics, 2017. John Conrad Jaeger Medal 2015, awarded by the Australian Academy of Science. Henry Houghton chair for visiting senior earth scientists, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015 Australian Laureate Fellowship, 2015, awarded by the Australian Research Council For service to Australian society and science in marine science. M. R. Banks Medal, awarded by the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1998. Humboldt Prize, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, 1997. Frederick White Prize, awarded by the Australian Academy of Science, 1988. J. T. Knight Prize, 1976, awarded by the University of Cambridge. South Australian Engineering Design Award, with Dr Garry L. Brown, awarded by Engineers Australia, 1975.