Timothy Killeen, assistant director for the geosciences at the National Science Foundation, will present "Challenges and Opportunities in the Geosciences" as the 2009 Arthur H. Waynick Memorial Lecture at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 1, in 22 Deike on the University Park campus of Penn State.
The event is free and open to the public.
Killeen's office oversees research in atmospheric, earth and ocean sciences, including climate processes and changes, the water cycle and natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and severe storms.
He has served as the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research since 2000. Before that, he was a professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences, associate vice president for research and director of the Space Physics Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan.
Killeen holds a doctorate in atomic and molecular physics and a bachelor of science with first-class honors from University College in London.
He has been president of the American Geophysical Union since 2006 and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Established in 1984, the Waynick Memorial Lecture Series honors Arthur Waynick, electrical engineering department head and founder of the Ionosphere Research Laboratory, now known as the Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory.
Waynick remained active in the laboratory well after his retirement and until his death in 1982.