Chris Rapley is Professor of Climate Science at University College London. He is a Fellow of St Edmund's College Cambridge, a visiting Professor at Imperial College London, a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a member of the Academia Europaea, a Board member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, Chairman of the European Space Agency Director General's High Level Science Policy Advisory Committee, and Chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership, committed to ensuring London's resilience to climate change.

His previous posts include Director of the Science Museum London, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, and Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Before that Prof Rapley established and built up the Earth Observation satellite group at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

Prof Rapley was awarded the 2008 Edinburgh Science Medal for having made 'a significant contribution to the understanding and wellbeing of humanity'. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2003.