William Kininmonth has a B.Sc. from the University of Western Australia, an M.Sc. from Colorado State University, and an M.Admin. from Monash University. He is a consulting climatologist who worked with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for 38 years in weather forecasting, research, and applied studies. For 12 years until 1998 he was head of its National Climate Centre. Mr. Kininmonth was Project Manager of an Australian government project of assistance to the Meteorology and Environmental Protection Administration of Saudi Arabia, based in Jeddah (1982-85). Mr. Kininmonth was Australian delegate to the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Climatology (1982-98) and served two periods on its Advisory Working Group (1985-89 and 1993-97). He participated in Expert Working Groups of the Commission and carried out regional training activities in relation to climate data management and climate monitoring. Between 1998 and 2002 he consulted to the Commission, including coordinating an international review of the 1997-98 El Niño event and preparation of a WMO publication, Climate into the 21st Century . He was a member of Australia's delegations to the preparatory meetings for the Ministerial Declaration of the Second World Climate Conference (1990) and to the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (1991-92). Mr. Kininmonth is author of the book Climate Change: A Natural Hazard (2004).