Department of Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Students' Distinguished Visiting Lecture
Professor Richard Alley
May 23, 2012
7:30-8:30, Kane Hall 210
Dr. Richard B. Alley
Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University
Lecture: "Learning While Burning: Energy, Economy, and Environment"
About the Lecture
We enjoy the benefits, but not the costs, of our unsustainable energy system. There is high scientific confidence that if we burn most of the fossil fuels and release the CO2 to the air, we will change the climate in ways that make life harder. Yet, we are surrounded by renewable resources that greatly exceed likely human use. And, solid scholarship shows that learning to use these sustainable resources before we burn all the fossil fuels can benefit the economy and national security as well as the environment.
About the Speaker
Dr. Richard Alley is the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University where he has worked since 1988. He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and M.Sc. (1983) and B.Sc. (1980) degrees from Ohio State University-Columbus. He conducts research and teaches on the climatic records, flow behavior, and sedimentary deposits of large ice sheets, to aid in prediction of future changes in climate and sea level. His experience includes field seasons in Antarctica, Greenland, and Alaska. His awards include election to the US National Academy of Sciences, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union and the Horton Award of their Hydrology Section and Fellowship in the Union, the Seligman Crystal of the International Glaciological Society, the first Agassiz Medal of the European Geosciences Union Cryospheric Section, Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the US Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America, the Easterbrook Award of their Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division and Fellow in the Society, the American Geological Institute Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of the Geosciences, and at Penn State, the Eisenhower Teaching Award, the Evan Pugh Professorship, the Faculty Scholar Medal in Science, and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Wilson Teaching Award, Mitchell Innovative Teaching Award and Faculty Mentoring Award.
Dr. Alley has served on a variety of advisory panels and steering committees, including chairing the National Research Council's Panel on Abrupt Climate Change and participating in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which was co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize), and has provided requested advice to numerous government officials in multiple administrations including a US Vice President, the President's Science Advisor, and committees and individual members of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He has published over 190 refereed papers, and is a 'highly cited' scientist as indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). His popular account of climate change and ice cores, The Two-Mile Time Machine, was chosen science book of the year by Phi Beta Kappa in 2001.
Sponsored by Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Quaternary Research Center, and Program on Climate Change.