Web Chat: Why Geological Information Could Predict Today's Climate Change

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Time: Mar. 4th, 4pm.

Click here for online Web Chat

Guest speaker:  visiting British scientist Dr. Dominik Weiss and a local expert from Guangzhou Meteorological Bureau

Dr. Dominik Weiss

Dominik Weiss is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Geochemistry at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London. He holds a first degree in Natural Sciences from the ETH Zürich and a PhD degree in Geochemistry from the University of Bern. After a postdoctoral stay at the MIT, he joined Imperial College in 2000. He has been working intensively on past and present global Pb and dust cycling using isotope and trace element geochemical techniques and peat cores as geological archives. His present research interests include long transport of trace elements and dust in China and combining it with atmospheric models to study human impact on climate and pollutant cycling.

Topic: Why geological information (getting results from sediments and ice cores) is so relevant to predict today's questions about climate change

Topics possibly involved in the web chat:

*Causes of formation for the rare snow disaster happened in China recently
*How do you think that some experts predict that "new flood to attack China"?
*How about the sustaining haze weather in the Pearl River delta
*How will the weather develop (like the sandstorms) in China and other Asian countries
*Some funny things that he meets during his research especially in China
*The differences of the weather research and weather forecast between China and other countries

The web chat is part of the programme of International Networking for Young Scientists (Guangzhou)

International Networking for Young Scientists (INYS) is a programme for bringing together young researchers from the UK and other countries to make new contacts and promote the creative exchange of ideas through short conferences.

The British Council and the Chinese science and education institutions have jointly organized the INYS since 2002 with the aim of promoting the academic exchange between Sino and UK young scientists. This project is based on the N+N model which enables two countries to appoint an equal group of scientists. Following the INYS, these young scientists will set up the links among each other through visits, emails, researches etc. to boost academic exchange and communication in their respective fields.

The first INYS in south China, a huge success, at the theme of Cancer Prevention, took place from 9th to 11th November 2006 in Guangzhou Chang Long Hotel. It was jointly organized by the Guangdong Department of Science and Technology (GDST), the Cultural and Education Section of British Consulate General Guangzhou and the China Academy of Sciences (CAS Guangzhou). 3 links were set up following the event.

The second INYS which is also part of the Oriental Science Forum is to be held from 5 to 7 March in Guangzhou Dongfang Hotel. Partners are Guangdong Department of Science and Technology (GDST), the Cultural and Education Section of British Consulate General Guangzhou the China Academy of Sciences (Guangzhou) and Guangzhou Daily (as media partner). The theme is Asian Monsoon and Climate Change. Organisers are: Guangdong Association of International Science and Technology Cooperation and the GZ Institute of Geochemistry, CAS.

Schedule of the programme:

1. 4th March: Dominik UK scientist coordinator gives on-line chat at Dayoo on why geological information (getting results from sediments and ice cores) is so relevant to predict todays questions about climate change

2. 5th, 6th March: INYS on Asian Monsoon and Climate Change (Location: Dongfang Hall of Dongfang Hotel)

3. 7th March: am government roundtable talk (BCG is also one of the partners) (Location: Dongfang Hotel Room 207A)

4. __pm visits to local institutes (Location: Institute of Geochemistry Chinese Academy of Science)

Some of the scientists' introductions:

Hans-F. Graf's CV:

Hans-F. Graf received a Diploma in Meteorology in 1974 at Humboldt University in Berlin, got his PhD in 1979 and habilitated to Dr. sc. in 1989. Having been a Senior Scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology for more than 10 years, he was appointed Professor in Environmental Systems Analysis with the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge in 2003.

Researches:

For more than 30 years a.o. he worked in the field of analyzing modeled and observed variability structures of atmospheric circulation and published, together with co-workers and students, more than 130 papers. His main interests during recent years were natural variability modes of atmospheric circulation and their change due to different forcings (volcanic, ozone, greenhouse gases) and inherent variability of the coupled system ocean atmosphere.

He further conducted research in the fields of stratospheric aerosol modelling, volcanic sources of sulfate aerosols and volcanic plume modelling as well as modelling the effects of smoke on convective clouds using the ATHAM high-resolution model that was developed in his group. He was PI in several national research programmes, co-ordinated the PARTS project, was PI in SMOCC and CARBOSOL in FP5 and works in FP6 projects SCOUT and INSIDE, an Asia pro Eco project. Currently he is involved as CoPI in NERC funded projects on the emission of trace gases over the pristine rain forest in Malaysia and on future evolution of stratospheric ozone and geo-engineering concepts.

Peter Clift's CV:

Peter Clift has been the Kilgour Professor in geology at the University of Aberdeen since 2004. He has a BA (1st class) and MA in Earth Sciences from the University of Oxford and took his Ph.D. in tectonics and geology at the University of Edinburgh.

Clift worked on the tectonics of the western Pacific as a Royal Society of Edinburgh postdoctoral fellow before joining the Ocean Drilling Program at Texas A&M University in 1993. He subsequently worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) where he studied a variety of continental margin geological and geophysical topics from 1995 to 2004.

Researches:

His research now focuses on the nature of solid Earth-climate coupling with special reference to the Asian monsoon and the role that rivers have played in shaping the environment. He uses geochemical and geophysical methods applied to marine sediments to understand the evolving nature of erosion and weathering in Asia, both on long time spans (millions of years) and in the recent geological past.

He is a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (South China Sea Institute for Oceanology) and a research affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gan Zhang's CV:

Gan Zhang is a research professor in organic geochemistry at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIGCAS). He holds a bachelor degree in Geology from Nanjing University, a MSc degree in Geochemistry from Nanjing University, and a PhD degree in Organic Geochemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined GIGCAS in 1995. He worked on the application of molecular markers in paleoclimatic change studies, and has been working on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment. His present research interests include the regional monitoring and long range atmospheric transport of POPs in China.

welcome to chat with our visiting guest online, should you have any questions, pls send us email to log@dayoo.com

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Source: www.lifeofguangzhou.com

Editor: Carrot Chan