The University of New Mexico’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences announces the Sixth annual Stuart Northrop Distinguished Lecturer featuring Dr. Clara Deser on Friday, April 14 at 3 p.m. in Northrop Hall, Room 122.
Deser’s talk, “A Range of Outcomes: The Combined Effects of Internal Variability and Anthropogenic Influences on Regional Climate Trends over North America,” will highlight recent advances in Earth System modeling in contrast with internal climate variability, synthesize new findings from “Large Ensemble” simulations, large ensembles based on records, and the “dynamical adjustment” method for uncovering anthropogenic climate change.
Disentangling the effects of internal climate variability and anthropogenic influences on regional climate trends over North America remains a key challenge with far-reaching implications. Due to its largely unpredictable nature on timescales longer than a decade, internal climate variability limits the accuracy of climate model projections, introduces challenges in attributing past climate trends, and complicates climate model evaluation.
Deser is a Senior Atmospheric Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications. She is known for her focus on global climate variability and change, centering around interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, and sea ice.
She co-leads several community projects regarding climate variability particularly in the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the effects of projected Arctic sea ice loss on global climate. She developed the use of Earth System Model Large Ensemble Simulations to explain the influences of natural and human-induced contributions to climate variability.
Launched in 2016, the Northrop lecture was created in honor of former EPS professor and Chair Dr. Stuart ‘Stu’ Alvord Northrop by UNM Alumnus and former student of Northrop, Dr. Bill Lovejoy. The lecture series serves as a venue to showcase the type of research and enthusiasm for seeking knowledge that was emblematic of Northrop himself.
Northrop’s contributions to the UNM Department of Geology during his long tenure as Chairman (1921-1961) were profound including laying the foundation of the present department by creating the MS and Ph.D. programs and building the current department’s building.
Lovejoy is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Georgia Southern University, who influenced generations of students with his own with his teaching and research. Lovejoy was born in a small Ohio town coming from four generations of coal miners and became a first-generation college graduate. After serving in the Navy, he attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio where he majored in geology. A month later, he boarded a bus for Albuquerque and UNM where he earned a master’s degree in geology.
Northrop’s contributions to the UNM Department of Geology during his long tenure as Chairman (1921-1961) were profound including laying the foundation of the present department by creating the MS and Ph.D. programs and building the current department’s building.
Lovejoy is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Georgia Southern University, who influenced generations of students with his own with his teaching and research. Lovejoy was born in a small Ohio town coming from four generations of coal miners and became a first-generation college graduate. After serving in the Navy, he attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio where he majored in geology. A month later, he boarded a bus for Albuquerque and UNM where he earned a master’s degree in geology.
The lecture series serves as a venue to showcase the type of research and enthusiasm for seeking knowledge that was emblematic of Dr. Northrop himself.