Lunch today: ORNL Climate Change Science Institute, impact of climate on society

Joseph Kennedy and Melissa Allen of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will discus the lab’s Climate Change Science Institute and the impact of climate on society during a lunchtime meeting today (Tuesday, February 16).

Kennedy and Allen will be the guest speakers at the Lunch with the League. Kennedy is a postdoctoral research associate and computational glaciologist at the Institute. Allen is a post-doctoral research associate in the Computational Science and Engineering Division. 

Presented by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, the program will be held at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday in  the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike. The public is invited, and no reservations are necessary. Lunches are provided on a first-come basis for $8 or you may bring your own. Coffee and tea are provided.

Also at the meeting, there will be a formal announcement and details of an ORNL CCSI and a League partnership on climate change issues, a press release said. League member Chris Iversen, who leads the climate change action group for the LWVOR, has been working extensively with ORNL to develop this partnership. ORNL is already working with the city of Knoxville on similar partnership.

CCSI was formed in 2009 to integrate climate science activities across Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Approximately 140 scientists in the areas of 1) earth system modeling; 2) data integration, dissemination, and informatics; 3) terrestrial ecosystem and carbon cycle science; and 4) climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability science are co-located in a single modern, open office space environment, the press release said.

It said that CCSI’s priorities are to create the science, experiments, data, and community capacity needed to:

• strengthen the predictive capabilities and effectiveness of climate and biogeochemical models,
• identify and understand how extreme events and climate tipping points impact the resiliency of human and natural land-energy-water systems,
• participate in national and international climate assessments and response option analysis, and
• develop useful climate adaptation and mitigation tools and information in collaboration with land-energy-water system stakeholders.

For more information, call (865) 693-6286.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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