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April 8th and 9th: Two Lectures with Dr. Gavin Schmidt
Please join us, in person or by live webcast, for these two free public lectures by Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
Lecture 1 - Climate change: Choose your own adventure!
Where: David Lam Auditorium (Room A114), MacLaurin Building UVic, Victoria
When: April 8th, 2015 7pm
Webcast
Abstract: New observations of past climate change allow us to gain a better appreciation of where we are now. Through the use of climate models, Dr. Schmidt will demonstrate how those observations give us a better view of how and where we might end up as a result of the choices we make.
Lecture 2 - What are climate models good for?
Where: Room C300, UBC Robson Square, Vancouver
When: April 9th, 2015 7pm
Webcast Abstract: Explaining current climate change, and what might happen in the future, requires large- scale complex climate models of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and cryosphere. But can models predict climate changes in the face of the chaotic dynamics of weather? Dr. Schmidt will show that while climate models are not perfect, they can be very useful for improving our understanding of the complexities of climate change, for determining what is driving the changes, and for informing policy decisions.
About Dr. Gavin Schmidt:
Gavin Schmidt is an expert in climate modeling who began his career at NASA GISS in 1996, and is now Director. He has worked on developing and improving computer models that integrate ocean, atmosphere, and land processes to simulate Earth’s climate, and is particularly interested in how they can be used to inform decision-making. Schmidt received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Oxford University in 1988 and a doctorate in applied mathematics from University College London in 1994. In addition to more than 100 published, peer-reviewed articles, he is the co-author of "Climate Change: Picturing the Science" (W.W. Norton, 2009), a collaboration between climate scientists and photographers. He is a contributing editor to the long- standing RealClimate blog and his 2014 TED talk has been seen by almost 1 million viewers. He has worked with the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, the Royal Society and the National Academies among others to inform and illustrate the science behind the headlines on climate change. In 2011, he was awarded the inaugural American Geophysical Union Climate Communications Prize.