Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, is a global leader with a phenomenal record of accomplishments in science communication. He is lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I report The Physical Science Basis (2007) and has also authored public and general education books, including Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change and Our Future, and Earth: The Operators’ Manual. Publishers Weekly referred to Time Machine as a “brilliant combination of scientific thriller, memoir and environmental science” and recognized Earth: The Operators’ Manual as a book that “thoroughly explains the dynamics of global warming” with a “lively and positive” approach. He is also author and coauthor of numerous interpretation and overview articles in Science, Nature, Scientific American, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and education journals and supplements.
Richard has also made more than 800 nontechnical presentations to interest groups, the public, industry, and museums and has responded to an estimated 4000 media inquiries and taught a global online course on climate science. In addition, he advised the U.S. president’s science office, the U.S. vice president, the U.S. Senate, and congressional committees and senators and provided advice and briefings to many levels of government.
He provided text to the National Science Foundation that was incorporated into a speech by the president of the United States. And he is the author of 335 publications, including 241 in peer-reviewed scientific journals!
Tom Wagner of NASA characterized Richard Alley as an “exceptional researcher…an outstanding communicator…a central figure in policy discourse…. His audiences at scientific meetings typically overflow the room, and he is enviably comfortable speaking to eight-year-olds.” He has traversed the continent to share the climate message with audiences, often riding those red-eye flights to make tomorrow’s lecture and then share a science discussion in a local school. Search YouTube for “Richard Alley scientist,” and thousands of videos that feature Richard’s congressional testimonies, public and science presentations, and humorous science music videos appear; his presence goes on and on. In the YouTube video “How to talk to an OSTRICH: ‘IT’S US,’” Richard makes carbon balance and isotope geology interesting and enjoyable to everyone.
Richard speaks to all audiences, sharing science, impacts, and wonderful discussions of solutions. He leaves people with greater understanding and confidence that we can address the biggest challenges of our time. How does he do all these things so well and remain our kind, humble, and generous colleague? I cannot imagine anyone more deserving of this AGU Climate Communication Prize.
—James M. Byrne, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alb., Canada
I can’t think of anyone on the planet more deserving of the Roger Revelle Medal than Richard Alley. He’s not only a brilliant climate scientist but also a highly gifted communicator.
Let me first say a few worlds about Richard’s science. It centers on glaciers and branches out from there to many aspects of climate and paleoclimate. To me, Richard is the “answer man.” When I’m puzzled about something I read or hear, I call or e-mail Richard. Nine times out of 10 he gives me a well-reasoned, easily understood explanation, and if it’s not on the tip of his tongue, he’ll get back to me. Traditionally, his papers deal with the movement of glaciers over their substrates and how ice shelves influence this motion, but with the advent of the central Greenland ice core program, he has immersed himself in the read-ing of these records and what they have to tell us about the relationship between climate and ocean circulation.
Of all the people I know, Richard puts the greatest effort into doing something concrete about the ongoing increase in atmospheric CO2 content. As his expertise is in glaciology, he focuses his scientific atten-tion on the response of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps to global warming. He considers the IPCC estimates of melting rates to be gross minima and points to a host of processes that are likely to speed the influx of meltwater into the sea. He is not content to limit his comments on this subject to fellow scientists and students. Rather, he eagerly donates his time to reporters and congressmen, and because of his contagious enthusiasm and articulate explanations, they flock to his doorstep.
One of Roger Revelle’s great strengths was his ability to get the attention of people with influence. We dearly miss Roger and need people who can do what he did. Unfortunately, there aren’t many. But in Richard, we have such a person. Hence, I know that Roger would be pleased to no end that Richard is receiving the medal bearing his name. Hail to Richard Alley!
For those of you who are not acquainted with Richard’s career, he did his Ph.D. research at the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Charles Bentley. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1987, he stayed on as a postdoc for 1 year. Then he took a teaching job at Penn State, where he remains today. As of the year 2000, he was appointed the Evan Pugh Professor. Along the way, he married Cindy and together they raised two daughters who are now in college. Despite many offers to move elsewhere, including several from Columbia, he and Cindy have chosen to remain in “Paterno” land.
—WALLACE S. BROECKER, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, N.Y.