Dietz is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been awarded the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America, the Distinguished Contribution Award of the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society, and the Outstanding Publication Award, also from the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society, and the Gerald R. Young Book Award from the Society for Human Ecology. At the National Research Council he has served as chair of the Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change and the Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making. Dr. Dietz has also served as Secretary of Section K (Social, Economic, and Political Sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is the former president of the Society for Human Ecology. He has co-authored or co-edited 11 books and more than 100 papers and book chapters. His current research examines the human driving forces of environmental change, environmental values, and the interplay between science and democracy in environmental issues.

Waleed Abdalati is the director of the Earth Science and Observation Center in CIRES at the University of Colorado, where he is also an associate professor of geography. He conducts research on high-latitude glaciers and ice sheets using satellite and airborne instruments. From 2004 to 2008 he was head of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch, supervising a group of scientists that work with satellite and aircraft instruments to understand the Earth’s changing ice cover. From 2000 to 2006, he managed NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Program, overseeing NASA-funded research efforts on glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, and polar climate. During that time, he also served as Program Scientist for NASA’s Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which has as its primary objective understanding changes in the Earth’s ice cover. From 1996 through 2000, Dr. Abdalati was a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and from 1986 to 1990 he worked as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry. Dr. Abdalati received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House in 1999 and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2004. He earned his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Colorado in 1996, an M.S. degree in aerospace engineering sciences from the University of Colorado in 1991, and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University in 1986.

Antonio J. Busalacchi, Jr., is director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) and professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests include tropical ocean circulation, its role in the coupled climate system, and climate variability and predictability. Dr. Busalacchi has been involved in the activities of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) for many years and currently is chair of the Joint Scientific