Richard Alley | |
|---|---|
 Richard Alley in 2014, portrait via theRoyal Society | |
| Born | Richard Blane Alley (1957-08-18)18 August 1957 (age 68) |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | |
| Awards | ForMemRS[1] 2014BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award Heinz Award with special focus on the Environment (2011) Roger Revelle Medal (2007) AGU Fellow (2000)[2] |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Pennsylvania State University |
| Thesis | Transformations in polar firn (1987) |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles R. Bentley[3] |
| Website | www |
Richard Blane Alley (born 18 August 1957)[6] is an Americangeologist and Evan PughProfessor ofGeosciences atPennsylvania State University.[7] He has authored more than 240 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth'scryosphere andglobal climate change,[3] and is recognized by theInstitute for Scientific Information as aHighly Cited Researcher.[8][9][10][11]
Alley was educated atOhio State University andUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was awarded aPhD in 1987.[12]
In 1999, Alley was invited to testify aboutclimate change by Vice PresidentAl Gore[13] after his research with Greenland ice cores indicated that the last Ice Age ended abruptly and violently rather than as a result of gradual change.[14] He appeared again before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in 2003; before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology in 2007;[15] and in 2010.[16][17]
Alley's 2007 testimony was due to his role as a lead author of "Chapter 4: Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground" for the Fourth Assessment Report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has participated in the jointUN/WMO panel since 1992, having been a contributing author to both the second and third IPCC assessment reports.
Alley has written several papers in the journalsNatureandScience,[7][18][19][20][21][22] and chaired theNational Research Council onAbrupt Climate Change. In 2000, he published the bookThe Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future. He has appeared in numerous climate change-related television documentaries and has given many public presentations and media interviews about the subject.[23][24][25][26]
Alley gave the Bjerknes lecture to the 2009American Geophysical Union meeting titled "The biggest control knob- Carbon Dioxide in Earth's climate history". A video of the presentation[27] is available (also available on YouTube).
His more recent work has examinedice sheets and the factors that affect "calving", the process by which ice sheets break up.[14][28]
Alley was awarded theSeligman Crystal in 2005 "for his prodigious contribution to our understanding of the stability of the ice sheets and glaciers ofAntarctica andGreenland, and oferosion andsedimentation by this moving ice."[3] Alley is one of several Penn State earth scientists who are contributors to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
In 2005 he was also the first recipient of the Louis Agassiz Medal for his "outstanding and sustained contribution to glaciology and for his effective communication of important scientific issues in the public policy arena".[29] His award citation stated "He is imaginative, sharp and humorous, and remains a thorn in the backside of the Bush administration."[29]
In 2008 Alley was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.[30]
In 2011, he received the 17th AnnualHeinz Award with a special focus on the environment.[31][32]
On 28 April 2014 theNational Center for Science Education announced that its first annual Friend of the Planet award had been presented to Alley andMichael E. Mann.[33] He was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in the same year, his nomination reads:
Richard Alley has made outstanding contributions to the study of ice, its interactions with the landscape and its link to climate. He has made important advances in topics as diverse as grain-scale physics controlling ice deformation, the role and nature of ice streams, and processes at the bed of the ice sheet. His work synthesised the evidence thatabrupt climate changes occurred in the past, and drove hypotheses about their cause and the role of ice onocean circulation. Alley is also an outstanding science communicator, whose skill and enthusiasm has influenced both policymakers and large public audiences.[1]
He won the 2014BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change category for his “pioneering research” into the “mechanics of ice and its implications for abrupt climate change,” in the words of the jury's citation. He is the 2017 recipient of theWollaston Medal, which is the highest award given by theGeological Society of London. It is reserved for geologists who have made a significant impact on the field through a substantial body of impactful research.
In 2018, Alley was named the recipient of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer Award.[34] Alley was chosen primarily because of his discoveries advancing the understanding of rapid climate change and the stability of polar climates.
In January 2025, President Biden awarded Alley theNational Medal of Science.[35]
In addition to his research, Alley has made several appearances on television. On Sunday, April 10, 2011,PBS debuted a special program on climate change, entitledEARTH: The Operators’ Manual,[36] hosted by Alley.[37] The program's aim was to present an objective, accessible assessment of the Earth's problems and possible solutions, with the stated intention of leaving viewers informed, energized and optimistic. The series continued through 2012 on PBS and affiliates. The series is accompanied by a book of the same name, also by Richard Alley.[38] It was published on April 18, 2011. He has also appeared in episodes of theHistory Channel seriesMega Disasters.[citation needed]
