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The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report (2012)

Chapter: Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
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D
Biographies of Committee Members and Staff

GERALD R. NORTH, Chair, is a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography (1986-present), served as head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (1995-2003), and held the Harold J. Haynes Endowed Chair in Geosciences from 2004 to 2009 at Texas A&M University. Previously Dr. North worked as a senior research scientist at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (1978-1986). His professional interests include climate analysis, climate and hydrological modeling, satellite remote sensing and mission planning, and statistical methods in atmospheric science. Dr. North and his research group are interested in climate change and the determination of its origins. They work with simplified climate models that lend themselves to analytical study, estimation theory as applied to observing systems, and the testing of all climate models through statistical approaches. Dr. North is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Meteorological Society, and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). He is former editor-in-chief of Reviews of Geophysics and is currently editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Sciences, Second Edition. Dr. North received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin (1966). He has served as a member of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and as chair of the Committee on Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years (2006).

DANIEL N. BAKER is director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he also holds appointments as professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences and as a professor of physics. His primary research interest is the study of plasma physical and energetic particle phenomena in planetary magnetospheres and in the Earth’s vicinity. He conducts research in space instrument design, space physics data analysis, and magnetospheric modeling. He currently is an investigator on several NASA space missions including the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission, the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission, and the Canadian ORBITALS mission. Dr. Baker has published more than 700 papers in the refereed literature and has edited six books on topics in space physics. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Iowa. In 2010, Dr. Baker was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for leadership in studies, measurements, and predictive tools for the Earth’s radiation environment and its impact on U.S. security. He is a fellow of the AGU, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among his other awards are the 2007 University of Colorado’s Robert L. Stearns Award for outstanding research, service, and teaching; the 2010 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ James A. Van Allen Space Environments Award for excellence and leadership in space research; and his selection in 2004 as a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Baker served as president of the Space Physics and Aeronomy section of AGU (2002-2004), and he presently serves on advisory panels of the U.S. Air Force and the National Science Foundation (NSF). He is a member of the NRC’s Committee on the Effects of Solar Variability on Earth’s Climate: A Workshop and has served as a member of the Space Studies Board and several NRC committees, including the Committee on Solar and Space Physics (chair), the Committee on Assessment of Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions (co-chair), the steering committee for the NRC’s 2003 decadal survey in solar and space physics, the 2006 Decadal Review of the U.S. National

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×

Space Weather Program, and the 2006 Committee on an Assessment of Balance in NASA’s Science Programs.

RAYMOND S. BRADLEY is a University Distinguished Professor of Geosciences and director of the Climate Systems Research Center at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Bradley’s research interests are in climatology and paleoclimatology, with a particular focus on the postglacial period (the past 12,000 years). Dr. Bradley has written or edited 12 books on these subjects, including Paleoclimatology: Reconstructing Climates of the Quaternary and Climate Change and Society (with N.E. Law). He has been an advisor to various government and international agencies, including those in the United States, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and in particular for NSF, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminiatration (NOAA), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the U.S.-Russia Working Group on Environmental Protection, and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, Stockholm, Sweden. He is a fellow of the AGU, the Arctic Institute of North America, and the AAAS. He received an honorary doctorate from Lancaster University, England, for his contributions to paleoclimatology. He was also awarded the Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union. Dr. Bradley earned his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He served previously on the NRC’s Panel on Climate Variability on Decade-to-Century Time Scales, the Grasslands Study Panel, and the Committee on Monitoring and Trend Assessment in Acid Deposition.

PETER FOUKAL is the president of Heliophysics, Inc., and the founder and past-president of Cambridge Research and Instrumentation, Inc., a high-tech firm specializing in electro-optics. His experience includes research and teaching positions at the California Institute of Technology and Harvard University and a position as vice president of AER, Inc. He was awarded a NATO senior fellowship at Nice Observatory, France, and has served as a member or as chair of numerous panels and advisory boards of NSF and NASA. He is past-president of Division II of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a past member of the editorial board of Solar Physics Journal, and at present a member of the Corporation of Wheelock College. Besides the IAU, his professional affiliations include memberships in the American Astronomical Society and the AGU. He is author or co-author of more than 120 publications in scientific journals and author of the widely used text Solar Astrophysics. Dr. Foukal earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Manchester University, United Kingdom. His previous NRC experience includes serving on the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate’s Committee on Solar and Terrestrial Research and the Associateship and Fellowship Programs Advisory Committee’s Panel on Space Sciences.

JOANNA D. HAIGH is professor and head of the Department of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College, London. Prior to joining Imperial College as a lecturer, she was a research associate at Oxford University. Dr. Haigh’s research interests are in the area of radiative transfer in the atmosphere, climate modeling, radiative forcing of climate change, and the influence of solar irradiance variability on climate. She has been vice president of the Royal Meteorological Society, editor of Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, and a lead author of the IPCC Third Assessment, and she has acted on many U.K. and international panels. Currently she is the U.K. representative to the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, editor of the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, and a member of the Royal Society’s Climate Change Advisory Group. She is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Meteorological Society, and she has received the 2004 Charles Chree Medal of the Institute of Physics and the 2010 Adrian Gill Prize of the Royal Meteorological Society for her work on solar influences on climate. She earned her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.

ISAAC M. HELD is a senior research scientist at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, where he has spent most of his career. He is a lecturer with the rank of professor at Princeton University in its Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program and is an associate faculty member in Princeton’s Applied and Computational Mathematics Program and in the Princeton Environmental Institute. Dr.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×

Held’s research focuses on climate dynamics and climate modeling, with particular interests in the planetary-scale structure of the atmospheric circulation, climate sensitivity, and various aspects of geophysical turbulence. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the AGU and a member of the NAS. Among other awards he has received are two Presidential Rank Awards for Government Service and the Carl Gustav Rossby Medal, the highest award of the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Held received his Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton University. He is currently a member of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, and his prior NRC service includes the Committee on Stabilization Targets for Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations.

GERALD A. MEEHL is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His research interests include studying the interactions between El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the monsoons of Asia; identifying possible effects on global climate of changing anthropogenic forcings, such as carbon dioxide, as well as natural forcings, such as solar variability; and quantifying possible future changes of weather and climate extremes in a warmer climate. He was contributing author, lead author, and twice a coordinating lead author for the first four IPCC climate change assessment reports. He is currently a lead author on the near-term climate change chapter for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. He was a recipient of the Jule G. Charney Award of the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Meehl is an associate editor for the Journal of Climate, a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and a visiting senior fellow at the University of Hawaii Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research. Dr. Meehl earned his Ph.D. in climate dynamics from the University of Colorado. He serves as co-chair of the Community Climate System Model Climate Change Working Group and as co-chair of the World Climate Research Programme Working Group on Coupled Models. He is chair of the NRC’s Climate Research Committee, and he previously served on the NRC’s Panel on Climate Observing Systems Status.

LARRY J. PAXTON is a member of the principal professional staff and head of the Geospace and Earth Science Group at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Paxton is the co-principal investigator for the Global Ultraviolet Imager on the NASA Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics mission and the principal investigator on the Defense Meteorological Satellites Program’s Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager. His research focuses on the atmospheres and the ionospheres of the terrestrial planets, in particular the aeronomy of Earth’s upper atmosphere and the role of solar-cycle and anthropogenic change in creating variability in the dynamics, energetics, and composition of the upper atmosphere. He has been involved in more than a dozen satellite, space shuttle, International Space Station, and sounding rocket experiments. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. Dr. Paxton has published more than 230 papers on planetary and space science, instruments, remote sensing techniques, knowledge-based decision systems, and space mission design. He has served on several NASA and NSF committees, panels, and working groups and currently serves on the NASA Heliophysics Roadmap panel. He is past chair of the International Academy of Astronautics Commission 4 on Space Systems Utilization and Operations. He earned his Ph.D. in astrophysical, planetary, and atmospheric sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Paxton currently serves as a member of the NRC’s Panel on Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Interactions of the Committee on a Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics).

PETER PILEWSKIE is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a joint appointment in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). He is the director of the joint LASP and NASA Goddard Sun Climate Research Center. Dr. Pilewskie is the principal investigator for the NOAA and NASA Joint Polar Satellite System Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor and a co-investigator on the NASA Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment. His research interests include solar spectral variability and its effects on terrestrial climate; quantifying the Earth-atmosphere radiative energy budget; surface, airborne, and satellite remote sensing

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×

of clouds and aerosols; and theoretical atmospheric radiative transfer. Prior to his arrival at the University of Colorado, Dr. Pilewskie spent 15 years at the NASA Ames Research Center, where his research centered on airborne measurements of atmospheric radiation, cloud and aerosol remote sensing, and analysis of the atmospheric radiative energy budget. Dr. Pilewskie was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and is an elected member of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences International Radiation Commission. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona.

CAROLUS J. SCHRIJVER is principal physicist and a Lockheed Martin Fellow of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center. Past positions include fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences at the Astronomical Institute of Utrecht, a research fellowship at the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, and a research associateship at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Schrijver’s research focuses on the magnetic activity of the Sun, the coupling of the Sun’s magnetic field into the heliosphere and its solar wind, and the manifestations of magnetic activity of other Sun-like stars. In addition to scientific research, he is actively involved in developing and operating space instrumentation: he was the science lead and later the principal investigator for the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer mission; he is the science lead for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and co-investigator on the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on SDO and on the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph Small Explorer Program. At Lockheed Martin, he is involved in defining and developing instrumentation for potential future heliophysics missions. He has served in NASA advisory functions, including the NASA Sun-Earth Connection strategic planning teams for 2000 and 2003, the Panel on Theory and Modeling of the NASA Living With a Star (LWS) initiative, the LWS Science Architecture Team, the LWS Mission Operations Working Group, the Solar-Heliospheric Management Operations Working Group, the LWS Targeted Research and Technology Steering Group, the Heliophysics Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council, and the science definition teams of the Solar Orbiter and Solar Sentinels. He received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Prior NRC service includes membership on the Space Studies Board and the Task Group on Ground-based Solar Research.

KA-KIT TUNG is a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington, where he previously served as department head. Past positions include professorships at Clarkson University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an associateship at Harvard University. Dr. Tung’s research interests include climate sensitivity and the terrestrial response to solar forcing and also atmospheric blocking and stratospheric blocking and ozone. He was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and is currently a Boeing Endowed Professor. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences and editor of the Journal of Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems, B. Dr. Tung received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at Harvard University.

Staff

ABIGAIL A. SHEFFER, Study Director, joined the Space Studies Board (SSB) in Fall 2009 as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow to work on the report Visions and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022. She went on to become an associate program officer for SSB. Dr. Sheffer earned her Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona and her A.B. in geosciences from Princeton University. Since coming to the SSB, she has worked on several additional studies, including Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies, Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Collaboration on Space and Earth Science Missions, and Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×

ARTHUR A. CHARO joined the SSB in 1995 as a senior program officer. He has directed studies that have resulted in some 33 reports, notably the first NRC decadal survey in solar and space physics (2003) and in Earth science and applications from space (2007). Dr. Charo received his Ph.D. in physics from Duke University in 1981 and was a postdoctoral fellow in chemical physics at Harvard University from 1982 to 1985. He then pursued his interests in national security and arms control at Harvard University’s Center for Science and International Affairs, where he was a research fellow from 1985 to 1988. From 1988 to 1995, he worked as a senior analyst and study director in the International Security and Space Program in the U.S. Congress’s Office of Technology Assessment. Dr. Charo is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in International Security (1985-1987) and a Harvard-Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1987-1988). He was also the 1988-1989 American Institute of Physics AAAS Congressional Science Fellow. In addition to NRC reports, he is the author of research papers in molecular spectroscopy, reports on arms control and space policy, and the monograph “Continental Air Defense: A Neglected Dimension of Strategic Defense” (University Press of America, 1990).

CATHERINE A. GRUBER, editor, joined the SSB as a senior program assistant in 1995. Ms. Gruber first came to the NRC in 1988, as a senior secretary for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and also worked as an outreach assistant for the National Science Resources Center. She was a research assistant (chemist) in the National Institute of Mental Health’s Laboratory of Cell Biology for 2 years. She has a B.A. in natural science from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

AMANDA R. THIBAULT, research associate, joined the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) in 2011. Ms. Thibault is a graduate of Creighton University, where she earned her B.S. in atmospheric science in 2008. From there she went on to Texas Tech University, where she studied lightning trends in tornadic and non-tornadic supercell thunderstorms and worked as a teaching and research assistant. She participated in the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX 2) field project from 2009 to 2010 and graduated with an M.S. in atmospheric science from Texas Tech in August 2010. She is a member of the American Meteorological Society.

DIONNA WILLIAMS is a program associate with the SSB, having previously worked for the National Academies’ Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education for 5 years. Ms. Williams has a long career in office administration, having worked as a supervisor in a number of capacities and fields. Ms. Williams attended the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and majored in psychology.

TERRI M. BAKER was a senior program assistant for the SSB until April 2012. She came to the SSB from the National Academies’ Center for Education. Mrs. Baker has held numerous managerial, administrative, and coordinative positions and has focused on improving productivity and organization wherever she works. Mrs. Baker is currently working on her B.A. in business management.

DANIELLE PISKORZ, an SSB Lloyd V. Berkner space policy intern, recently graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in physics and a minor in applied international studies. She has done various research projects at L’Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and spent her junior year studying at the University of Cambridge. Ms. Piskorz plans to begin her graduate studies in Fall 2012 in geophysics.

MICHAEL BARTON, an SSB Lloyd V. Berkner space policy intern, recently graduated from Mississippi State University with a B.S. in aerospace engineering with a concentration in astronautics and a minor in leadership studies. He spent last summer in the NASA Academy for Space Exploration at NASA Glenn Research Center, where he worked on research projects in computational fluid dynamics and microgravity test beds. As part of the NASA Academy, Mr. Barton was able to tour other NASA centers and commercial space operations, as well as meet many engineers and managers across the workforce. Previous to that, he was a co-op engineer in space shuttle guidance and navigation during the waning

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×

years of the Space Shuttle Program at NASA Kennedy Space Center. These experiences have given him insight into the culture and operational processes of NASA. At Mississippi State, Mr. Barton has served as president or vice president of several engineering student organizations and honor societies, and he has worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant and researcher in computational fluid dynamics. Mr. Barton plans to pursue a master’s degree in aerospace engineering next fall.

MICHAEL H. MOLONEY is the director of the SSB and the ASEB at the NRC. Since joining the NRC in 2001, Dr. Moloney has served as a study director at the National Materials Advisory Board, the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA), the Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design, and the Center for Economic, Governance, and International Studies. Before joining the SSB and ASEB in April 2010, he was associate director of the BPA and study director for the Astro2010 decadal survey for astronomy and astrophysics. In addition to his professional experience at the NRC, Dr. Moloney has more than 7 years’ experience as a foreign-service officer for the Irish government and served in that capacity at the Embassy of Ireland in Washington, D.C., the Mission of Ireland to the United Nations in New York, and the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, Ireland. A physicist, Dr. Moloney did his graduate Ph.D. work at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He received his undergraduate degree in experimental physics at University College Dublin, where he was awarded the Nevin Medal for Physics.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×
Page 51
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×
Page 52
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×
Page 53
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×
Page 54
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×
Page 55
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographies of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2012. The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13519.
×
Page 56
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On September 8-9, 2011, experts in solar physics, climate models, paleoclimatology, and atmospheric science assembled at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado for a workshop to consider the Sun's variability over time and potential Sun-climate connections.

While it does not provide findings, recommendations, or consensus on the current state of the science, The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate: A Workshop Report briefly introduces the primary topics discussed by presenters at the event. As context for these topics, the summary includes background information on the potential Sun-climate connection, the measurement record from space, and potential perturbations of climate due to long-term solar variability. This workshop report also summarizes some of the science questions explored by the participants as potential future research endeavors.

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