UMass Climate System Research Center

Climate System Research Center
- News & Outreach -

About Us

News/Outreach

  Climate System
  Research Center
  UMass Amherst
  Department of
    Geosciences
  236 Hasbrouck
  Amherst, MA
  01003 - USA
  ph: 413.545.0659
  fx: 413.545.1200
  paleoclimate.org

Through research and outreach acitivities, the Climate System Research Center helps to reduce uncertainties about human impacts on the climate system and to improve our understanding of climate variability over a range of timescales. With this knowledge, better decisions can be made in public policy, im commerce, and by individual citizens.

2008

PhD candidate Nicholas Balascio was awarded a student scholarship from the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) to attend and present his research at their 20th Annual Meeting and Arctic Forum in Washington, D.C. entitled "Tipping Points - The Arctic and Global Change".
POLAR-PALOOZA is a public education and outreach project supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA to bring information and insights about the Poles to large public audiences across America. Julie Brigham-Grette of UMass is a member of the science team for shows at The Salt Lake City Library Auditorium in Salt Lake and at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, OK.
Kate Zalzal was named a Summer Synthesis Scholar and will participate in the 2008 Summer Synthesis Institute. The Institute is sponsored by the Northeast Consortium for Hydrologic Synthesis and the central question for this year's Institute is: What was the nature of hydro-systems across the Northeastern U.S. from pre-European settlement through the colonial period (1600-1776), and what were the relative roles of humans and the natural environment in defining those systems?
Frank Keimig presented talks on global warming and climate change at the Sunderland Public Library and the Sturbridge Senior Center.
Ray Bradley appeared on "Watercooler" on WGBY (Springfield, MA PBS station) discussing global warming on April 16.
Ray Bradley was interviewed on past climate change by Laurie Sanders of WFCR for her weekly program "Field Notes". Listen here to the April 7 broadcast and here to the April 14 broadcast.
Julie Brigham-Grette and Robert DeConto have been invited to host one of 11 exhibits at the National Science Foundation Open House on Feb. 4 in Arlington, Va. The team will represent an international group of scientists recovering a complete 3.6 million-year record of the arctic climate from a remote Siberian lake. Read more here.
Steve Petsch was interviewed by WFCR concerning his research on natural gas formed by bacteria in rock. Listen to the interview here and see a description of Steve's research here.
Julie Brigham-Grette was interviewed on climate change by Laurie Sanders of WFCR (local public radio station) for her weekly program "Field Notes". Listen here to the January 21 broadcast.

2007

Several members of the Climate System Research Center were contributors to reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in recent years. The reports earned the panel the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Al Gore, a leading environmentalist and former U.S. vice president. Raymond Bradley, Mathias Vuille and Douglas Hardy were all contributing authors to the IPCC reports. In addition, former Climate Center members Caspar Ammann (now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research) Michael Mann (now at Pennsylvania State University), Mark Serreze (CIRES, University of Colorado) and Pavel Groisman (National Climate Data Center, Asheville, N.C.) also contributed to the reports.
PhD student Kinuyo Kanamaru has been awarded a DOSECC (Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earths Continental Crust) internship to examine the origin and composition of marine sediments from Saanich Inlet, British Columbia in order to help understand the impact of seismic activity on the long-term sediment flux.
PhD student Nicholas Balascio has been awarded the J. Hoover Mackin Research Award from the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division of the Geological Society of America for his proposal to study Holocene tsunami deposits in coastal lakes of the Lofoten Islands, Norway. The award supports outstanding Ph.D. student research in Quaternary geology and geomorphology and it will be presented to Mr. Balascio at the Division's awards ceremony during the GSA National Meeting in Denver Colorado on October 30th .
Steve Burns receives NOAA research grant for studies of High Resolution Speleothem records of the South American Monsoon over the last 2000 years. Read more.
Research Associate Professor Mathias Vuille and Climate Center alumnus Caspar Ammann were hosts of the "ThinkSwiss Climate Trail", which formed part of "The Wonder of Science" street festival held in Boulder Colorado on September 29th. Read more.
A three year curriculum development and professional development program entitled "STEM Polar Connections: A three region initiative to integrate the study of Polar Regions and activities associated with the International Polar Year (IPY) into the middle and high school curriculum" has been funded. See the press release.
Ray Bradley, Director of the Climate System Research Center has received a three-year, $416,550 award from the National Science Foundation for his project, titled "Volcanoes in the Arctic System: Geochronology and Climate Impacts". See the press release.
Ray Bradley, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences, was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union, for "his contribution to paleoclimate reconstruction from continental archives and for being instrumental in the multi-proxy approach leading to the quantification of climate change over the last millennium". Bradley received the award at a ceremony in Vienna, Austria on April 17th.
Ray Bradley briefed Governor Deval Patrick on global warming and climate change on 1/18/2007. Read the briefing here.

2006

Ray Bradley was on CNN (06/26/2006) discussing issues of greenhouse gases, global warming, and adaptation. (transcript)
The National Academy of Sciences released a report on "Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years" on 06/22/2006. Read the reaction of Ray Bradley.
Doug Hardy talked about our research activities at the Academy at Charlemont on 05/19/2006.
The Climate System Research Center co-sponsored a Public Forum on Climate Change at the UMass Amherst on 04/12/2006.
Frank Keimig was part of a panel discussion on Climate Change on 04/03/2006 for the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture of the Massachusetts Legislature.
James Bradbury is a contributing member of the Climate Team for the Northeast Climate Impact Assessment (NECIA) project, organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists (reports to be release in the summer/fall of 2006).
Frank Keimig presented a talk on Climate Change on 03/23/2006 at the "Massachusetts Envirothon" at Pioneer Regional High School.
Carsten Braun gave a talk on Climate Change and Glaciers at a fundraiser in Look Park, Northampton.
The Climate System Research Center was well-represented at the 36th International Arctic Workshop in Boulder, Colorado.
Carsten Braun talked to students at the Academy at Charlemont on 01/10/2006 about Climate Change and "Global Warming".

2005

Ray Bradley presented a lecture entitled "An Update on Global Warming" on 12/4/2005 at The First Churches in Northampton, MA.
James Bradbury presented two talks on the subjects of "Climate Change and the Hydrologic Cycle" and "The Science of Global Warming and Climate Change" for a Massachusetts Envirothon conference at UMass Amherst in November 2005.
Request of Rep. J. Barton and Rep. E. Whitfield for information regarding "Global Warming" studies and response of Ray Bradley and others.
Julie Brigham-Grette chairs the Scientific Steering Committee of IGBP PAGES.
James Bradbury presented a talk titled "Global Warming and Climate Change" to a dozen public high school teachers (grades 7 to 12) for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association in July 2005.

2004 and before

"Paleoclimate, Global Change and the Future" by Alverson, K.D., Bradley, R.S., and Pedersen, T.F. (eds.) has recently been published.