Global Climate Change:
Perspectives and Solutions

Lecturer Biographies

Lecture Times: 6:30–8 PM
Lecture Schedule | Lecture Summaries

Daniel R. Cayan, Ph.D., is a Research Meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego and is also a researcher in the U.S. Geological Survey. His work is aimed at understanding climate variability and changes over the Pacific Ocean and North America. Specific interests concern impacts of climate changes on water resources and other sectors in California. Cayan heads the California Applications Program and the California Climate Change Center, climate research programs designed to improve the reliability of climate information and forecasts for decision-makers in the California region. Since 1996, he has served as Director of the Scripps Climate Research Division. Cayan received a B.S. in Meteorology and Oceanography in 1971 from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of California, San Diego in 1990. He has been employed by Scripps since 1977 and by the U. S. Geological Survey Water Resources Division since 1991.

Patti Krebs is Executive Director of the Industrial Environmental Association, an organization representing manufacturing, high-tech and research and development companies on a wide variety of legislative, regulatory and public policy issues that affect industrial facilities and operations.

Bishop George Dallas McKinney was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He currently serves as pastor of St. Stephens Church of God in Christ, which he founded with his wife Jean in 1962. McKinney has written many books and articles, the most recent being The New Slave Masters (Cook Communications Ministries, January 2004). In 2001, he was named "Racial Reconciliation Man of the Year" by the National Association of Evangelicals, and in 2003, he was nominated for U.S. Senate Chaplain, by National Association of Evangelicals and Rev. Billy Graham. McKinney holds a B.A in sociology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, an M.A. in systematic theology from the Oberlin College School of theology and a Ph.D. in ecclesiology from the California Graduate School of Theology, Glendale.

Michael Oppenheimer, Ph.D., is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also the Director of the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School, and Associated Faculty of the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences Program. He joined the Princeton faculty after more than two decades with Environmental Defense. His interests include science and policy of the atmosphere, particularly climate change and its impacts. His research explores the potential effects of global warming, including the effects of warming on ecosystems and on the nitrogen cycle; and on the ice sheets in the context of defining "dangerous anthropogenic interference" with the climate system. He served as a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report, and is also a lead author for the Fourth Assessment. He was a member of the National Research Council's Panel on the Atmospheric Effects of Aviation, and currently is a member of the Council's Panel on Climate Variability and Change. He also has served on several university and institutional advisory boards. Prior to his position at Environmental Defense, Oppenheimer served as Atomic and Molecular Astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Lecturer on Astronomy at Harvard University. He received a B.S. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago, and pursued post-doctoral research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Jonathan Overpeck, Ph.D., has specialties that include: climate dynamics (including paleoclimatology), climate and ecosystem interaction, climate assessment and environmental decision-support. He has ongoing research programs in the Arctic, Western United States, South America, Africa and the Himalaya. Overpeck is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona, where he is also a Professor of Geosciences and a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences. He has a B.A. from Hamilton College (1979), an M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1985) from Brown University. Overpeck has written over 100 publications on climate and ecosystem variability. He founded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Paleoclimatology Program, as well as the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology before moving to the University of Arizona. He was also Co-chief Scientist on the original 1990 paleoceanographic expedition to the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela-the cruise that has led to some of most cited millennia-length records of tropical climate variability yet produced. Overpeck was founding co-chair of both international and national U.S. CLIVAR-PAGES working groups, chair of the ARCUS-NSF Arctic System Science Committee, and is a member of the NOAA Climate Working Group. Overpeck has been awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze and Gold Medals, as well as the Walter Orr Roberts award of the American Meteorological Society for his interdisciplinary research. He is also a Coordinating Lead Author for the on-going Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment. Overpeck was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to spend his sabbatical year (2005-6) investigating paleoenvironmental perspectives on the future, and was the 2005 American Geophysical Union Bjerknes Lecturer.

Kim Prather, Ph.D., holds a joint appointment as a Professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Davis, and performed her postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Yuan T. Lee. Her research focuses on understanding the role aerosols play in air pollution, climate change, and human health.

Prather works closely with the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine the major sources and processes contributing to air pollution such as industrial processes, vehicles, ships, as well as other naturally produced aerosols such as mold and pollen. Her research focuses on reducing some of the major uncertainties associated with our climate in an effort to help establish proper control strategies for the 21st century. She has received a number of major awards for her research from institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the American Chemical Society, and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

Linda Giannelli Pratt is the Chief of the Office of Environmental Protection and Sustainability with the City of San Diego Environmental Services Department. For more than 25 years, she has successfully built a professional career focused on community-based environmental protection. Her broad experience includes positions as a laboratory analyst, regulatory compliance specialist, consultant, adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego, and director of regional environmental programs. Her reports have been published in three books and many professional journals. Pratt had a B.S. in microbiology and chemistry and an M.S. in environmental studies.

Ron Sims is in his third term as King County Executive. He has built his career in public service around the progressive principles of environmental stewardship, social justice, and good government. As County Executive, he oversees Washington State's most populous county, which includes the city of Seattle and is the 13th largest county in the nation. Among his notable list of accomplishments, Sims has established an unparalleled record of environmental protection. In July 2006, the Sierra Club honored Sims with its prestigious 2006 Edgar Wayburn Award, which celebrates outstanding service to the environment by a person in government. Sims has committed King County to a strategy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from county operations and implementing aggressive clean energy standards and cutting-edge environmental management policies. Under Sims's leadership, the county pioneered hybrid bus technology and is the state's biggest user of biodiesel. During Sims' tenure, King County has conserved well over 100,000 acres of green space and has committed itself to setting aside another 100,000 acres by 2010. In summer 2006, Sims led the effort to make King County the first county in the United States to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, the only national carbon exchange in the country. Most recently, Sims's office announced a partnership with the internationally distinguished Climate Impacts Group and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability to write a guidebook that will advise local and regional governments on how to prepare for the regional impacts of global warming. ICLEI, an international nonprofit group, will publish and distribute the guidebook to its 193 United States member cities, towns and counties, as well as numerous cities worldwide. Sims is a member of the advisory board of the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

Richard C. J. Somerville is Distinguished Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from New York University in 1966 and has been a professor at Scripps since 1979. Somerville's research interests range from the physical science of the climate system to the policy implications of climate change. He comments frequently on climate and environmental issues for the media and has also trained schoolteachers, testified before the United States Congress, briefed United Nations climate change negotiators and advised government agencies on research, education and outreach. Among many honors, he has received awards from the American Meteorological Society for both his research and his popular book, The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change. He is a Coordinating Lead Author for the forthcoming report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to appear in 2007.

Mark H. Thiemens is Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and a professor in UCSD's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Thiemens is an atmospheric chemist who conducts research on atmospheric aerosols and strategies to detect bioterrorist agents on aerosols. He has served as chair of UCSD's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and is founder and director of the University's Center for Environmental Research and Training. He joined the UCSD faculty in 1980, coming from the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago. In his first year, Thiemens discovered a new variety of isotope effects which overturned conventional theory regarding the formation and evolution of the solar system. This work has been extended and applied to a wide range of issues. His research has utilized rocket-borne sampling to understand the chemistry of Earth's upper atmosphere, especially for ozone chemistry. His program also utilizes a global sampling program, employing ER-2 aircraft, stratospheric balloons, and ships to understand and resolve issues in global climate warming. His research has taken him to the remotest regions of the Earth, including a trip to the South Pole. His work has also extended to samples from Mars to resolve the evolution of the Martian atmosphere and the potential for life on that planet. Presently, Thiemens is working on a spacecraft that will fly and collect samples of the sun and Mars for return analysis to understand the evolution of the solar system. He has twice received the Alexander Von Humboldt awards and received the E. O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy in 1998. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. Recently, an asteroid (or "minor planet"), 7004 Markthiemens, was named for him.

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