University Park, Pa. — The Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory's annual Arthur H. Waynick Memorial Lecture Series will feature Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, at 8 p.m. on May 2 in 104 Keller Building, University Park.
The event is free to the public.
The lecture, “Global Climate Change: Human Causes and Responses,” will discuss evidence of contemporary climate change and its causes, including the human-enhanced greenhouse effect.
Cicerone is an atmospheric scientist whose research in atmospheric chemistry and climate change has involved him in shaping science and environmental policy at the highest levels nationally and internationally.
Cicerone's many awards and honors include recognition in the citation for the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry award to F. Sherwood Rowland, a United Nations Environment Program Ozone Award in 1997 and the Franklin Institute’s Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science in 1999. Additionally, Cicerone led a National Academy of Sciences study that was requested by President Bush in 2001 to assess the current state of climate change and its impact on health and the environment.
Cicerone earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois.
Since 1984, the Waynick Memorial Lecture Series has honored Arthur Waynick, who served as the department head for electrical engineering and founded Penn State's Ionosphere Research Laboratory, now known as the Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory. Waynick continued to be active in the laboratory after retirement and until his death in 1982.