UPDATE: Listen to the Richard Somerville interview as part of the Dec. 1 NewsCenter Podcast. 

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Environmental Science Program will present a lecture by Richard Somerville, climatologist, University of California San Diego professor and author of "The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change."

The lecture, titled "Global Warming: What Do We Know And What Should We Do?," takes place 4 - 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, followed by a book signing to 5:30 p.m. in Love Library, room 430.

About Somerville

Somerville is a theoretical meteorologist and an expert on computer simulations of the atmosphere. He received the Ph.D. in meteorology from New York University in 1966 and has been a professor at Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UCSD since 1979.

Somerville's research is on the physics of clouds and their role in the climate system. His interests include all aspects of the climate, including climate science outreach and the interface between science and public policy. He comments frequently on climate and environmental issues for the media.

Somerville has received awards from the American Meteorological Society for both his research and his popular book "The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change." Among many honors, he is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society.

He is also a coordinating lead author for the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize equally with Al Gore.