Upon the invitation of the IAP Department of Postgraduate and LASG/IAP, Dr. Clara Deser, an internationally renowned scientist at National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA visited IAP and gave a seminar series on Climate Variability and Change to IAP postgraduate students on 5-8 June 2012. Centering around topics of “Understanding Recent (1950-2000) Atmospheric Circulation Trends: The Relative Impacts of Sea Surface Temperature Forcing and Direct Atmospheric Radiative Forcing”, “Tropical Pacific Variability”, “The Atmospheric Response to Arctic Sea Ice Loss” and “Uncertainty in climate change projection: The role of natural variability”, Dr. Deser introduced the latest research progress at Climate Analysis Section (CAS) of NCAR.

The 4-day seminar series was chaired by LASG deputy director Prof. Tianjun Zhou. About 100 postgraduate students and young scientists from IAP, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, and China Ocean University attended the seminars. Heated discussions happened at the end of every seminar. Questions from students and young scientists include: is recent climate change categorized as variability or change? How do we define Nino index after global warming? What’s the effect of North Pole sea ice change on climate system annual variability? etc. Dr. Deser thought highly of these questions which reflect IAP students’ scientific knowledge and capacity, and she answered these questions with patience and pleasure.

The  international frontier research introduced in the seminar series broadened and enhanced IAP students’ understanding of climate change and variability.

Dr. Clara Deser graduated from MIT in 1982 and received her PhD from University of Washington in 1989. She’s published more than 80 papers on Science, J. Climate, Geophys. Res. Lett., Climate Dynamics, among other top international peer-reviewed journals. She’s currently a senior scientist and the director of NCAR CAS. She was elected fellow of American Meteorology Society in 2008.

Dr. Clara Deser

Prof. Tianjun Zhou chaired the seminar