Event Details

Speaker: Dr. John Drake, Climate Research Consultant with Global Reviews

With the US out of the Paris Climate Accord (Again), researchers face uncertain and unsettling times. For students and teachers, what and how we study will likely change. This talk opens a conversation relating stories of other challenging times from the perspective of several climate researcher’s personal experiences. Controlling the narrative, political interference in science, speaking the truth, carrying on or quitting, are again familiar themes in the news and in the personal lives of many present day researchers. With some historical perspective, and discussion about how current researchers are coping, perhaps we can entertain a long view of climate science and other important inquiries.

Dr. John Drake was group leader of the Computational Earth Sciences Group in the Computer Sciences and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). After retiring from the ORNL, he has pursued research, teaching and project consulting at the University of Tennessee in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D in Mathematics from the University of Tennessee in 1991.

Dr. Drake joined the Computer Sciences and Mathematics Division at ORNL in 1984 as part of the Mathematics Group. Previous research was on viscoelastic and fluid flows associated with gas centrifuges and he also served as site numerical methods consultant. His areas of expertise are mathematical methods, numerical simulation and fluid dynamics. He is an author on over 60 professional papers and 30 technical reports, and guest editor of special issues of Parallel Computing and The International Journal of High Performance Computing and Applications. A graduate textbook Climate Modeling for Scientists and Engineers was published by SIAM in 2014 based on courses he offered at the University of Tennessee.

This EnviroThursday is co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies and Political Science Departments.