Dr Harvey Stern is a meteorologist of 40+ years' standing, currently with an honorary appointment in the University of Melbourne's School of Earth Sciences. Previously, he headed the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Climate Services Centre of the Bureau's Victorian Office. Dr Stern holds a Ph. D. from the University of Melbourne for a dissertation entitled "Statistically based weather forecast guidance". Much of his work has related to the development of computer systems for automated forecasting guidance, to long-term trends in the accuracy of weather predictions, and to various aspects of climate and climate change. Harvey Stern's most recent work suggests that weather forecast accuracy may be increased by mechanically combining human and automated predictions and has resulted in the development of a knowledge based system to generate weather and climate forecasts. Dr Stern holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia and, in this context, his work includes evaluating the cost of protecting against global climate change utilising options pricing theory and weather derivatives.