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Climate Science Myth Busters Seminar

Posted by on Monday, April 10, 2017 in Events, Research.

Jonathan Gilligan (Vanderbilt University)

Join the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering April 12 at 3:10pm in Featheringill Hall 134 for a seminar by Dr. Jonathan Gilligan: Climate Science Myth Busters.

There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding climate change. Dr. Jonathan Gilligan will present on the state of climate science and answer questions such as:

  • Is climate change real and how do we know?
  • Isn’t cooling and warming part of the natural climate cycle?
  • On what issues is there strong scientific consensus and where is there disagreement?
  • What is the evidence supporting scientists’ conclusions?
  • Are there respected scientists who do not think humans are contributing to climate change?
  • Are a few degrees warmer really that big a deal?

Questions sent to leah.a.dundon@vanderbilt.edu will be provided to Dr. Gilligan anonymously in advance.

Dr. Gilligan works primarily at the intersection of natural science, social science, and public policy with a focus on coupled human‐natural systems and on the ways in which scientific knowledge and uncertainty affect policy decisions about the environment. His current work makes extensive use of agent‐based models to simulate the ways that small changes in behavior at the individual level can add up to large‐scale shifts at the level of the whole population, giving what is often referred to as “emergent phenomena.” These models have the potential to help identify vulnerabilities to environmental stress and opportunities to promote sustainable adaptations. His prior research has included nonlinear dynamics and chaos, quantum optics, stratospheric photochemistry, electrocardiology, physical mechanisms of laser surgery, laser processing and analysis of semiconductors, laser‐cooling of atomic ions, and high‐precision atomic and molecular
spectroscopy. He teaches Vanderbilt’s Global Climate Change course, has authored numerous peer reviewed journal articles in the area of climate change and, together with Michael Vandenbergh, is this year’s winner of the Morrison Prize for the most impactful scholarship on sustainability and the law.

More information here.

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