[Fornlist] Luncheon Meeting, Wednesday, May 20, 2009

[Warren Webb]

The Friends of ORNL will hold its monthly luncheon lecture meeting on Wednesday, May 20.  This month, Dr. David Erickson, Computational Earth Sciences Group, Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the speaker and the title of his presentation is Global climate modeling: Physics, Satellites, Chemistry, Energy Prediction and Treaty Verification.  This meeting is open to the public.
Dr. Erickson will discuss several new climate, carbon and biogeochemical modeling results that require Peta-flop computational resources within the context of climate science and high performance computing.  An overview of the rapidly growing field of global Earth System simulation will be presented.  The impact and extent of coupling of atmospheric iron deposition and the time scale of the response of ocean biota is examined employing a global numerical model of dust generation, transport and deposition coupled with remotely sensed ocean color data.  Using global 3-D climate predictions at 80 km spatial resolution every 15 minutes from 1870-2100, ecosystem niche evolution at mid-high latitudes will be presented with an eye toward resource management.  Results from a novel numerical model of energy usage is driven with climate variables from 2000-2025 so as to predict the financial impact of global warming will be presented.  Finally, an approach to couple satellite data streams with global climate simulations to address Treaty Verification will be introduced. 

Dr. David Erickson has been a Senior Research Staff member in the Computational Earth Sciences Group of the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in Oak Ridge, Tennessee since 2000.  Since 2003 he has been an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.  In 2008 he became an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

Dr. Erickson received a B.S. in chemistry from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1982.  He received his Ph.D. in atmospheric chemistry/chemical oceanography/marine chemistry, with Prof. Robert A. Duce, from the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island in Narragansett, Rhode Island in 1987, generating a thesis on a global numerical model of atmospheric particle fluxes.  He trained as a post-doc in climate modeling, marine and atmospheric chemistry and geophysical fluid dynamics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California from 1987-1989.

The meeting location in Oak Ridge is the UT Resource Center, the white-colored building at 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike (State Highway 95) between Taco Bell and Applebee's at the intersection of the Turnpike and Rutgers Ave (at Traffic Light #7).

MEETING AGENDA:

11:00 a.m. Socializing and Coffee
11:30 a.m. Lunch (provided by the Soup Kitchen, Cost $7.00))
11:50 a.m. Business Items (if any)
12:00 noon Lecture begins 
12:45 p.m. Q&A 
1:00 p.m. Adjourn