Warm climates of the past - a lesson for the future?

Dr Daniel Lunt, University of Bristol, UK

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Dan Lunt is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Much of his work is driven by a desire to understand the world we live in, and how it has varied in the past.  To achieve this, he makes use of numerical models of past climates, to test hypotheses derived from the geological record.  He also uses the past climate record to improve models, and to better predict future climate change. He has provided evidence to a UK Government Select Committee on Geoengineering and climate change, and is a Contributing Author to the forthcoming IPCC report.  He is founding Chief Executive Editor of the Geoscientific Model Development, an journal designed for the description and evaluation of models of the Earth System. In 2010 he won the Philip Leverhulme Prize, in recognition of the fundamental contribution his findings have made across a range of different subject areas.

Professor Harry Elderfield

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Professor Andy Ridgwell, University of California Riverside, USA

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Andy Ridgwell is currently Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Riverside and Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, and in a prior incarnation, a Royal Society University Research Fellow. He writes computer models of global carbon cycling and climate, focusing on both past and future controls on the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere its interaction with life on this planet. His interests span questions of evolution and extinction, causes and consequences of changes in ocean chemistry, and geoengineering of the Earths’ climate. He is a great proponent of computer (programming) literacy and greater accessibility of tools (models) to help understand the complexities (and uncertainties) in the dynamics and evolution of the Earth system. He lives in the Southern Californian mountains where he collects cats and Pokémon.

Professor Richard Pancost, University of Bristol, UK

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Richard Pancost started his academic career at the Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained his PhD in Geosciences; this was followed by a  postdoctoral research position at the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and then a lectureship appointment at the University of Bristol in 2000.  He is is currently a Professor of Biogeochemistry in the School of Chemistry at Bristol and is the head of the Cabot Institute’s Global Change research theme. He is an organic geochemist with specific expertise in geomicrobiology and palaeoclimate reconstruction, with an emphasis on developing and applying molecular proxies for ancient carbon dioxide concentrations and temperatures.  Recent research highlights include new sea surface temperature records for the Paleogene and biomarker records for methane cycling and hydrological changes during past episodes of global warmth. He has been involved in numerous projects, including five EU grants, and has numerous collaborators from across the globe. In recognition for his early career accomplishments, he was awarded the 2005 Schenk Award by the European Association of Organic Geochemists, and in 2011 he was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.