Professor Benjamin Horton is the Dean of the School of Energy and the Environment at City University of Hong Kong (CityU). 

Prior to becoming Dean, he was the Director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore and the Chair of the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He was appointed the AXA Chair in Natural Hazards from 2020 to 2025. 

Professor Horton was Professor in Marine Science at Rutgers University and Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Horton obtained his PhD from the University of Durham, UK.

Professor Horton has won several awards in his career. In 2019 and 2025, he was appointed the President’s Chair in Earth Sciences at City U and NTU for outstanding achievement. For excellence in research, he received the Plinius Medal from the European Geosciences Union, the Voyager Award from the American Geophysical Union, and the W. Storrs Cole Award and this year the Kirk Bryan Award from the Geological Society of America. He was elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union. 

Professor Horton is distinguished for his research into sea-level change, significantly enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms that have determined sea-level changes in the Earth’s past, and which will shape such changes in the future. 

Horton’s leadership in sea-level science has led to invitations to contribute to the activities of the two major bodies assessing global climate change, the Conference of the Parties (COP) and IPCC. Similarly, he has been called upon to provide advice and evidence to politicians, government agencies and businesses. Horton has recently been an invited speaker to the World Bank and at the Arctic Council in Germany, Russia, and Norway to present his research.

Professor Horton has published over 270 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 12 books or edited volumes. He has published over 40 articles in high profile journals such as Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Horton is supervising or has supervised 27 students to the degree of PhD and 23 postdoctoral scientists, of which 20 now have permanent academic positions.  His H-index is 87 and he has >20,000 citations. Professor Horton has been awarded US$50 million in research funding.