Dr. James E. Hansen Lecture at Cornell on Monday, April 19

Reminder: *Climate Scientist Dr. James E. Hansen, 2010 Iscol Lecturer: April 19

WHAT:* Dr. James E. Hansen to present “Global Climate Change, What Must We Do Next?”

*WHEN:* April 19, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

*WHERE:* Cornell University: Kennedy Hall, David L. Call Alumni Auditorium

ITHACA, N.Y. – Dr. James E. Hansen, the father of climate-change science, will speak at Cornell just prior to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Hansen will deliver the 2010 Jill and Kenneth Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture Monday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. in the David L. Call Auditorium of Kennedy Hall on the Cornell University campus. His talk “Global Climate Change, What Must We Do Next?” is free and open to the public.

Dr. Hansen is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of global warming. He heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and serves as adjunct professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. An active researcher in planetary atmospheres and climate science for nearly 40 years, he was trained in physics and astronomy in the space science program of Dr. James Van Allen at the University of Iowa. His early research on the properties of Venus’s clouds led to their identification as sulfuric acid. Over the past 30 years, he has performed studies and computer simulations of the Earth’s climate to understand the human impact on global climate.

While on campus, Dr. Hansen will also lead several classroom discussions, attend a graduate student luncheon, meet with faculty fellows of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future, and participate in a Q&A session “Having a Voice and Creating Change,” hosted by the Cornell Undergraduate Research Board. Dr. Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. In 2001, he received the Heinz Award for Environment and the American Geophysical Union’s Roger Revelle Medal. He received the World Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Medal from the Duke of Edinburgh and was designated by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in 2006. In 2007, Dr. Hansen received the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society for outstanding promotion and use of physics for the benefit of society, the Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award, and the Dan David Prize in the Quest for Energy. In 2008, he received the PNC Bank Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service for his outstanding achievements in science. His book, Storms of My Grandchildren , was published in 2009.

Established in 1991, the Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture brings prominent scholars, news makers, scientists, and leaders to Cornell to address environmental issues of paramount importance to humankind. Recognizing interdisciplinary scholarship on the frontier of scientific inquiry, the Iscol Lecture provides opportunities for Cornell students, faculty, staff, and the public to gain new knowledge about pressing environmental issues and enriches the intellectual character of the university and community. A faculty awards committee, representing a cross-section of academic disciplines, annually selects the Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecturer.

The Center for a Sustainable Future is grateful to Jill and Ken Iscol for their generosity and vision in supporting this annual lecture, which has done so much to raise awareness of environmental issues at the forefront of scientific and scholarly inquiry, and for the many other ways they have chosen to strengthen Cornell.