Florence Rabier elected to become the 10th President of the EMS

At the recent Session of the EMS Council in Ingolstadt, the councillors elected Florence Rabier to become the 10th President of the EMS. She will take over the office from Liz Bentley, the first female EMS President, on the closing day of the EMS2026 in Utrecht on 11 September 2026.

Dr Florence Rabier is an internationally recognised leader in meteorology and Earth-system science, with a distinguished career spanning nearly four decades in numerical weather prediction, satellite data assimilation, and scientific leadership. From 2016 – 2025 she has served as Director-General of ECMWF, guiding a 500-strong intergovernmental organisation through one of its most transformative periods. Under her leadership, ECMWF has expanded across three European sites (Reading, Bologna, Bonn), doubled its resources, and positioned Europe at the forefront of artificial intelligence-driven weather prediction.

A visionary strategist, Dr Rabier has forged deep partnerships with the European Space Agency, EUMETSAT, the European Commission, and the World Meteorological Organization, while ensuring ECMWF’s central role in flagship initiatives such as Destination Earth and Copernicus. Her tenure has also seen the development of the Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System (AIFS) and a strong institutional focus on data-driven science and sustainability.

Before becoming Director-General, she held senior scientific and managerial posts at Météo-France and ECMWF, where she spearheaded the operational implementation of the four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4D-Var) method — a global first that revolutionised the use of satellite data in weather forecasting. Her research legacy includes over 80 high-impact scientific publications and more than 8,000 citations.

Florence said: “I am honoured to have been elected as the upcoming President of the EMS. Liz Bentley is a remarkable President, and it is humbling to soon follow in her footsteps.”

The EMS is delighted Florence accepted to lead the EMS for the next three years.