Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory presents the 2024 W. S. Jardetzky Lecture with
Dr. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh University Professor, Geosciences, Penn State.
Sea-level rise from ice sheets: Bad, or worse?
Sea-level rise is almost guaranteed in a warming world, but with deep uncertainty regarding how much and how fast. Disruptive and expensive coastal-defense projects are planned—$52 billion for NYC, for example—that may prove to be inefficient or even counterproductive if they are preparing for too much or too little sea-level rise. The uncertainties are dominated by the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Earlier reports from the UN IPCC process have tended to underestimate subsequent sea-level rise, in part by relying on ice-sheet models that omit well-known but poorly quantified processes that accelerate mass loss. These processes range from tidewater intrusions into subglacial estuaries to crumbling of towering ice cliffs, and from almost certainly being active to generating vigorous discussions about (im)possibility. Setting aside the weighty implications for a moment, the ice sheets are beautiful, the scientific questions are fascinating, and the research is enthralling. The Jardetzky Lecture will bring an update on ice sheets and their possible effects on sea level.
Dr. Richard Alley (PhD 1987 Wisconsin; Evan Pugh University Professor, Geosciences, Penn State) studies the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets to help predict future climate and sea-level changes. He has been honored for research, teaching, and service, including election to the US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. He participated in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (co-recipient, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize), and provided requested advice to high government officials from both major political parties. He has authored or coauthored over 400 scholarly publications. His was presenter for the PBS TV miniseries Earth: The Operators’ Manual, based on his book. His popular account of climate change and ice cores, The Two-Mile Time Machine, was Phi Beta Kappa’s science book of the year. He is happily married with two grown daughters, two stay-at-home cats, a bicycle, and a pair of soccer cleats.
Host: Dr. Steven Goldstein, Interim Director, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The W. S. Jardetzky Lecture in geophysics honors the late Wenceslas S. Jardetzky, a renowned researcher and educator whose flourishing scientific career in Europe was halted by World War II and revived after he emigrated to the United States. From 1949 until his death in 1962, he was a research associate at Lamont-Doherty, where he collaborated with Frank Press, former president of the National Academy of Sciences, and Maurice Ewing, Lamont-Doherty's founder, on a well-known and widely used scientific book, Elastic Waves in Layered Media.
Dr. Jardetzky's broad scope of scientific interests also included celestial mechanics, fluid dynamics, theoretical physics, seismology, and the migration of the poles. A principal contribution to science was his mathematical theory on zonal rotation, which provided a mechanism for the migration of continents.
The Jardetzky lecture was established in 1992 by Dr. Jardetzky's son Oleg, who was the founder of the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory and professor of molecular pharmacology at Stanford University. In endowing the lectureship, Dr. Jardetzky said he hoped it would "help enrich the outstanding tradition of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which provided a much cherished intellectual home to my father after he emigrated to this country."
