October 14, 2002

EXPERT ON CLIMATE CHANGE TO GIVE FREE LECTURE ON NOV. 4

Author and meteorologist Richard Somerville will discuss "Can Climate Models Be Trusted?" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4, in the Jordan Ballroom of the Student Union at Boise State University.

The lecture, geared for a general audience, is free and the public is invited. It is sponsored by the Boise State chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and by the university’s biology and geosciences departments.

Somerville is a professor of meteorology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. An expert on climate and climate change, he is the author of the award-winning and critically acclaimed book, "The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change," published by University of California Press. "The Forgiving Air" is written for the general public and covers leading global environmental issues pertaining to such topics as climate change, along with energy, population and policy issues.

Somerville has briefed United Nations climate-change negotiators and advised federal agencies on education and outreach. His ongoing research projects involve working with graduate students and senior collaborators to advance theoretical understanding of key physical processes in our climate system.

Somerville comments frequently on climate and environmental issues for the print and broadcast media. He also lectures widely to both scientific audiences and the general public. The transcript of a Public Broadcasting System television interview is at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/debate/somerville.html.

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Alfred Dufty

Biology

426-3263

Janelle Brown

communications and marketing

426-1790