Michael E. Mann

My scientific research involves both the study of climate change, and the communication of the unprecedented changes it is causing in our global environment today. I am best known for pioneering techniques to synthesize patterns of past climate using paleoclimate data – and specifically, the iconic “hockey stick” reconstruction I published early in my career in the late 1990s that demonstrated the unprecedented nature of modern, human-caused warming from the burning of fossil fuels. However, I have made fundamental contributions to a number of areas of climate science including the factors governing the coming and going of ice ages, the role of both natural and human drivers on observed climate variability and change, the impact that climate change on extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires and floods, and the rising coastal threat from melting ice, increasing sea level and greater storms surges.

I have also been engaged in extensive efforts to engage the public on the defining issue and challenge of climate change, seeking to inform scientists, policy makers, civic and environmental organizations and the general public with basic knowledge and understanding of Earth’s climate.

My work studying human-caused climate change has taken me to volcanoes of Iceland and Santorini, to the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard, which has witnessed the disappearance of sea ice in recent decades. It’s taken me to the coral atoll of Morea in French Polynesia, which is succumbing to the twin threats of global sea level rise and ocean acidification. Closer to home, it’s taken me to stands of old growth forest in Virginia at Monticello and Montpelier where I’ve cored trees to obtain tree-ring records to compare to the weather diaries of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, to understand how our climate has changed since colonial times. I’ve visited and written about the vanishing glaciers of glacier national park in Montana. My work has also taken me to Washington DC to testify at numerous, sometimes contentious, congressional hearings about the dramatic impact human-caused warming is having on our planet.

My scientific career itself took me on an unanticipated journey. The hockey stick curve, which I published as a postdoctoral researcher in the late 1990s, became a symbol in the climate debate and placed me at the center of the contentious political battle over climate change and what to do about it. While it’s been a bruising battle, I consider myself privileged to have found myself in a position to impact the conversation about what is arguably the greatest challenge we face as a civilization.