| Richard Alley | |
|---|---|
| Residence | State College, Pennsylvania |
| Institutions | Pennsylvania State University |
| Alma mater | Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles R. Bentley [1] |
| Known for | Research of glaciology and ice sheets [2] |
Richard B. Alley (born 1957) is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University.[3] He has authored more than 170 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth's cryosphere and global climate change,[1] and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a "highly cited researcher."[4]
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In 1999, Alley was invited to testify about climate change by Vice President Al Gore,[5] in 2003 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology in 2007[6] and again in 2010.[7]
Alley's 2007 testimony was due to his role as a lead author of "Chapter 4: Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground" for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has participated in the joint UN/WMO panel since 1992, having been a contributing author to both the second and third IPCC assessment reports.
Alley has written several papers in the journals Nature and Science,[3] and chaired the National Research Council on Abrupt Climate Change. In 2000, he published the book The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future. He has appeared in numerous climate change-related television documentaries and has given many public presentations and media interviews about the subject.
Alley gave the Bjerknes lecture to the 2009 American Geophysical Union meeting- "The biggest control knob- Carbon Dioxide in Earth's climate history". A video of the presentation [8] is available (also available on YouTube).
Alley was awarded the Seligman Crystal in 2005 "for his prodigious contribution to our understanding of the stability of the ice sheets and glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland, and of erosion and sedimentation by this moving ice."[1] Alley is one of several Penn State earth scientists who are contributors to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
In 2005 he was also the first recipient of the Louis Agassiz Medal for his "outstanding and sustained contribution to glaciology and for his effective communication of important scientific issues in the public policy arena".[9] His award citation stated "He is imaginative, sharp and humorous, and remains a thorn in the backside of the Bush administration."[9]
In 2008 Alley was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.[10]
On Sunday, April 10, 2011, PBS debuted a new kind of program on climate change. “EARTH: The Operators’ Manual” dispenses with politics, polemics or punditry; instead, it presents an objective, accessible assessment of the Earth’s problems and possibilities, with the stated intention of leaving viewers informed, energized and optimistic. The series continues through 2012 on PBS and affiliates, with host Richard Alley. The series is accompanied by a book of the same name, also by Richard Alley. It was published on April 18, 2011.
Google Scholar search on author:R-Alley in physical sciences. As of Oct. 2008, 463 results; top result cited by 160.
PU Clark, RB Alley, D Pollard 1999. "Northern Hemisphere Ice-Sheet Influences on Global Climate Change" Science 5 November 1999: Vol. 286. no. 5442, pp. 1104 – 1111 DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5442.1104
DA Meese, AJ Gow, RB Alley, GA Zielinski, PM Grootes, M Ram, KC Taylor, PA Mayewski, JF Bolzan 1997. "The Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 depth-age scale: Methods and results" Journal of Geophysical Research. C. Oceans Vol. 102, no. C12, pp. 26,411 - 26,423. Nov 1997 abstract
J Jouzel, RB Alley, KM Cuffey, W Dansgaard 1997. "Validity of the temperature reconstruction from water isotopes in ice cores" Journal of Geophysical Research. C. Oceans 97JC01283 abstract
KM Cuffey, GD Clow, RB Alley, M Stuiver, ED Waddington, RW Saltus 1995. "Large Arctic Temperature Change at the Wisconsin–Holocene Glacial Transition" Science 20 October 1995: Vol. 270. no. 5235, pp. 455 – 458 DOI: 10.1126/science.270.5235.455
PA Mayewski, LD Meeker, S Whitlow, MS Twickler et al. 1994. "Changes in Atmospheric Circulation and Ocean Ice Cover over the North Atlantic During the Last 41,000 Years" Science 25 March 1994: Vol. 263. no. 5154, pp. 1747 – 1751 DOI: 10.1126/science.263.5154.1747