Professor Hywel Thomas is the third President of the Society.

Professor Thomas is the founder Director of the Geoenvironmental Research Centre (GRC) at Cardiff University, and a UNESCO Professor in the Development of a Sustainable Geoenvironment. He is a Distinguished Research Professor at Swansea University. He also leads FLEXIS, a £24 million project for energy systems research in Wales. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), and a Member of Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe.

In 2017 he received a CBE for services to academic research and higher education.