ECMWF announces appointment of Laurence Rouil as Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the EU.?

After over eight years of leading the EU-funded Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), which ECMWF operates on behalf of the European Commission, Vincent-Henri Peuch is leaving his position as Director of Service, to take up the newly created role of Director for ECMWF’s engagement with the EU. This is a role that we are starting to ensure the best possible coordination across all our EU-funded activities, whilst building synergies with our core mission to ECMWF Member States.?

Laurence Rouil has been appointed to replace Vincent-Henri as Director of CAMS from 1 February 2024. Laurence has a strong background in environmental engineering and atmospheric science, with 25 years of experience in the field. She has been involved in the development and implementation of CAMS since its inception, working as a coordinator of the policy services and a service provider to the regional atmosphere services. She also has knowledge and experience in Earth observation, atmosphere composition modelling, data assimilation and other CAMS thematic areas, as well as the Copernicus ECMWF activities and #ECMWF products. Her proven leadership and management skills as the current director of strategy, science policy and communication at Ineris, together with her scientific and technical expertise, will no doubt make her an inspiring and successful Director of CAMS at ECMWF.?

Vincent-Henri Peuch said: “I have been tremendously privileged to see the evolution of CAMS from a research activity with visionary ideas, moving from paper to reality. I joined ECMWF in 2011 but had been working on the precursor activities to CAMS for around eight years before that.?

Moving from the research to the operational phase of CAMS has been interesting – also seeing the development in parallel of what would eventually become the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Developing CAMS science, seeing the steady growth in user uptake, and the communication impact has been really satisfying."??

He added: “I’m delighted that Laurence will be taking the reins. The key evolution of the service is that by working on greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants we are getting ever closer to decisions that affect people’s health and well-being. The specificity of CAMS is that in providing air quality information and forecasts it can support the design and development of policies that can change the lives of citizens – if not overnight, then certainly within days when they are applied. I also want to take this opportunity to stress how much of a collective effort and success CAMS has been and is, tapping into the best expertise in Europe involving more than one hundred contractors and subcontractors from more than 20 countries – without this distributed expertise, CAMS would certainly not stand where it is.”?

Laurence Rouil said: “I am very proud and excited to contribute to the formidable edifice that CAMS has become at ECMWF. I can see how far we have come since the time when implementing services based on an original, integrated approach mobilising all types of observations and models to monitor the chemical composition of the atmosphere was just a concept and a research project.?

Vincent-Henri paved the way and turned it into an operational system, bridging science and policy, and serving general public and innovative economic interests. I am happy to follow in his footsteps.?

Monitoring atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and the emissions responsible for them, remains a major environmental challenge for human health and the environment.??

CAMS has the capacity to support the strategies developed by Europe in response, and to evaluate their effects, always mobilising the most advanced observation and modelling technologies. CAMS also has a role to play in supporting national capacity building not only in Europe but also in areas where legislation is less advanced and exposure more adverse. Such a framework offers promising and great challenges.??

It is also a privilege to be joining the ECMWF team, an organisation whose well-known values of excellence, integrity, collaboration, and passion provide a particularly motivating environment.”?

Florence Rabier , Director-General of ECMWF said: “I am delighted to welcome Laurence into the ECMWF leadership team. With her experience in atmospheric sciences, policy services and international negotiations, she will be a real asset to the team.?

The current director of CAMS at ECMWF, Vincent-Henri Peuch, has been instrumental in making CAMS a success, and will now bring his expertise to a new role of strategic coordinator of EU activities at ECMWF.”?

We wish them both well in their new roles.