The public is invited to both lectures, which are free.

Alley, who is Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at The Pennsylvania State University, has spent three field seasons in Antarctica and five in Greenland. At those inhospitable places, he participated in efforts to remove ice cores that were to reveal histories of our climate. Dr. Alley’s book “The Two-Mile Time Machine,” on the results obtained from the two-mile ice core removed from Greenland, was the national Phi Beta Kappa Science Award winner for 2001.

The 110,000 years of climate history preserved in the Greenland ice cores revealed a long slide from warm conditions much as we enjoy today into cold, dry, and windy conditions characteristic of the Ice Ages. They also reveal a climb back into the warm conditions we enjoy today. Most surprisingly, the ice cores revealed dramatic climate changes that were also abrupt. Dr. Alley has demonstrated that exceptionally large climate changes have occurred in as little as a single year.

Dr. Alley served as chairman of a National Research Council study of abrupt climate change. The committee’s report was published in 2002. It noted the historical record of dramatic and abrupt climate change. As an example, it was noted that nearly half of the north Atlantic warming since the last Ice Age occurred in only ten years. Such changes could have drastic consequences for ecology, economics, and security should they occur again soon. Of particular concern is the notion that changes to our climate as the result of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels or deforestation, may trigger abrupt climate changes.

Because of these concerns and because of his expertise, Dr. Alley has testified before a Senate committee, has advised a Vice President, and has served on many committees. He has authored or coauthored more than 145 refereed publications.

Dr. Alley received his Ph.D. in Geology, with a minor in Materials Science, from the University of Wisconsin in 1987. He earned his MS and BS degrees in Geology from the Ohio State University. Dr. Alley is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and has been awarded a Packard Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Horton Award of the American Geophysical Union Hydrology section, the Easterbrook Award of the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology section of the Geological Society of America, the Wilson Teaching Award of the College of Earth and Mineral Science and the Faculty Scholar Medal of the Pennsylvania State University.