5 to 6 p.m. · December 10, 2007
Alden Memorial, WPI Campus · Directions
Free and open to the public
Live Webcast
Ronald G. Prinn Professor, Atmospheric Researcher
Climate Change: Science, Economics, and Policy
Ronald G. Prinn
Ronald Prinn is a respected researcher with interests that incorporate the chemistry, dynamics, and physics of the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets, and the chemical evolution of atmospheres. He headed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences from 1998 to 2003. He is currently involved in a wide range of projects in atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry, climate science, and integrated assessment of science and policy regarding climate change. He leads the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), in which the rates of change of the concentrations of the trace gases involved in the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion have been measured continuously over the globe for the past two decades.
Prinn is pioneering the use of inverse methods, which use such measurements and three-dimensional models to determine trace gas emissions and understand atmospheric chemical processes, especially those processes involving the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere. He continues to work extensively with social scientists to link the science and policy aspects of global change. He has co-led the development of a unique integrated global system model coupling economics, climate physics and chemistry, and ecosystems, which is used to estimate uncertainty in climate predictions and analyze climate policies. He has made significant contributions to the development of national and international scientific research programs in global change. He is currently one of the lead authors in the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has published over 180 scientific papers, co-authored Planets and their Atmospheres: Origin and Evolution (Academic Press), and edited or co-edited Global Atmospheric-Biospheric Chemistry (Plenum), Atmospheric Chemistry in a Changing World (Springer), and Inverse Methods in Global Biogeochemical Cycles (AGU).
About the University Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Office of the President, the University Lecture Series provides a forum for speakers of national and international importance to enhance scholarly and scientific learning and to stimulate the intellectual climate of the university and surrounding communities.
Past Speakers
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