Robert Corell, Senior Fellow in the Atmospheric Policy Program of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), was for 12 years Assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this capacity, he had oversight of the Atmospheric, Earth, and Ocean Sciences and Global Change programs. More recently, as Chair of the Steering Committee for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, Corell oversaw a four-year international study of the region by 300 scientists. The study’s conclusion, released in November 2004, was that “The Arctic is warming much more rapidly than was previously known, at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the globe, and increasing greenhouse gases from human activities are projected to make it warmer still.”
In testimony that month before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, Corell presented the study’s results: “With respect to future changes, all of the models,” he reported, “regardless of the emissions scenario or computer model selected, project very significant warming for the Arctic over the next 100 years. Although these models do not agree on the regional and temporal details of the projected warming, there is little doubt that the world will warm significantly during the decades ahead and that the Arctic region will experience more warming than the rest of the world.”
An oceanographer and engineer by background and training, Corell has held appointments at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of Washington.
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