For more information:
Stacia VanDyne
vandyne@heinzctr.org
Tel: (202) 737-6307 Fax: (202) 737-6410
Robert Corell Attends Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony; Heinz Center Trustees and Staff Among IPCC Recipients
December 12, 2007
Global Change Program Director Robert Corell represented the Heinz Center at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony and festivities in Oslo, Norway this week.
Dr. Corell is among the thousands of scientists who contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is a co-recipient of the prize along with former United States Vice President Albert Gore Jr.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute issued a personal invitation to Dr. Corell to attend the events. He described the ceremony as incredible, saying “I was moved to tears.”
For Dr. Corell, who gave the keynote address at the first organizing conference for what later became the IPCC, recognition of the participating scientists was a fitting tribute for a truly global effort. “This award has helped elevate the credibility of science,” he said. “It also raises awareness of the negative effects climate change may have on people around the world, and how these effects may threaten peace.”
Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the IPCC was tasked with assessing the most current scientific, technical and socio-economic research available worldwide to “understand the risks of human-induced climate change, its observed and projected impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.” The IPCC has produced four synthesis reports of their findings. Designed to be an objective source of information on climate change, the reports are available in numerous languages.
In addition to Dr. Corell, who served as a reviewer for Working Groups I and II, the Heinz Center is honored to have several Trustees and staff who contributed to the Nobel-prize winning IPCC reports.
Dr. Jerry Melillo, Heinz Center Trustee and Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, served as a lead author on both the 1990 and 1995 IPCC Assessment Reports. In the first report, Dr. Melillo was a convening lead author of a chapter on the effects of climate change on ecosystems. In the second assessment, he co-authored a chapter outlining terrestrial responses to environmental change and resulting feedbacks to the climate system.
Dr.Edward Miles, former Heinz Center Trustee (2001-2007) and Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor of Marine Studies and Public Affairs at the University of Washington, was a lead author for the IPCC’s second assessment. He also served a five month internship with the IPCC secretariat in Geneva in the fall of 1993 and winter of 1994.
Dr. Dennis Ojima, Senior Scholar with the Heinz Center’s Global Change Program, participated in the IPCC’s 1996 second sssessment in various capacities, including as a lead author for Working Group I, Chapter I on the Carbon Cycle. In Working Group II, he was a contributing author to Subgroup D on Mitigation Options in Agriculture. Dr. Ojima was lead author in IPCC Chapter II.A.2. on Grasslands and Rangelands (1994‑1995), and also an expert reviewer for Working Group II.
For more information on the IPCC’s work, visit http://www.ipcc.ch/ or www.ipccinfo.com.
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The Heinz Center, established in 1995 in memory of Senator John Heinz, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic basis for environmental policy and to developing innovative solutions to environmental problems.