Distinguished Professor to Present at ASU on Hockey Sticks and Climate Wars

Climate change will take the spotlight as internationally known scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann addresses Angelo State University’s 2013 E. James Holland University Symposium on American Values Monday, Oct. 28, in the Houston Harte University Center.

Mann’s presentation, “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars,” will be covered in two sessions at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the University Center’s C.J. Davidson Conference Center as he discusses the intersection between climate science and American values.  The evening session will also feature a public question-and-answer session that will be moderated by Dr. John Wegner, ASU professor of English and director of the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research.

Informal receptions will be held following each session at 3:15 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the University Center Tower Lobby.  Both the presentations and the receptions are open free to the public.

Prior to his presentations on Oct. 28, Mann will be guest of honor at a barbeque on Sunday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the LeGrand Alumni and Visitors Center, 1620 University Ave.  Advance reservations are required and can be made by calling Dr. Trey Smith at 325-486-5441 or going online to www.angelo.edu/events/university_symposium/symposium_registration_form.php. Mann will also visit with an ASU biology class and be the special guest at an invitation-only ASU Honors Program luncheon on Oct. 28.

Director of the Earth System Science Center and Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, Mann has made significant contributions to the understanding of climate change over the last 2,000 years.  He was the lead author of a paper in 1999 that introduced new statistical techniques for hemispherical climate reconstructions and produced what has been dubbed the “hockey stick graph” because of its shape.

The author of two books, Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, Mann is also one of the lead authors on published reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to provide a scientific assessment of international information relevant to climate change.

Mann was the organizing chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has been selected by Scientific American as one of the 50 leading visionaries in science and technology.  He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union.  He is also a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.

The Holland Symposium was established in 1984 by then-College of Liberal and Fine Arts Dean E. James Holland.  When Holland retired in 2003, the board of regents named the symposium in his honor.  In its 29 years, the symposium has brought more than 60 nationally prominent figures to the ASU campus to spur thought and debate on issues relevant to American society.  The ASU Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs sponsors the symposium.

For more information, contact Dr. Amaris Guardiola, chair of the 2013 Symposium Committee, at 325-486-6634, or go online to the symposium website at www.angelo.edu/events/university_symposium/.