The Zurich Financial Services Distinguished Visitors program allows the Bren School to host international leaders in environmental policy, law, business, and science to enrich and expand the intellectual life of the Bren School community and share insight on issues critical to climate change. Activities of the visitors, who are in residence for periods ranging from one week to one quarter, include teaching short courses, offering public lectures, conducting seminars, and leading colloquia and symposia planned around their research, professional endeavors, or areas of expertise.

Visitors for Spring Quarter 2013

Margaret Davidson, Acting Director, Office of Coastal Resource Management, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Margaret Davidson will presente a public colloquium from 11:30-12:30 on April 18.

The Coastal Services Center provides technology, information, and management strategies used by local, state, and national organizations to address complex coastal issues. An active participant in coastal resource management issues since 1978, Davidson earned her juris doctorate in natural resources law from Louisiana State University. She later earned a master's degree in marine policy and resource economics from the University of Rhode Island. Davidson holds a faculty appointment at the University of Charleston and serves on the adjunct faculties of Clemson University and the University of South Carolina. She has served on numerous local, state, and federal committees and has provided leadership for national professional societies. She has focused her professional work on environmentally sustainable aquaculture, mitigation of coastal hazards, and impacts of climate variability on coastal resources. Davidson served as the acting assistant administrator for NOAA's National Ocean Service from 2000 to 2002.

Dr. Don Wuebbles, Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Illinois.
Complete biography

Dr. Wuebbles will be in residence at the Bren School May 13-24, 2013. A public colloquium presente by Dr. Wuebbles is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm.

Dr. Wuebbles was the first Director of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment, from 2006 to 2008, and led the Department of Atmospheric Sciences from 1994 until 2006. As the first Director of the Environmental Council at the University of Illinois, from 1996 until August 1999, he was responsible for the oversight and development of environmenally related educational and research programs across the University of Illinois. He spent many years as a research scientist and a group leader at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before returning to the University of Illinois in 1994.

Most of his more than four hundred scientific articles focus on the interactions of atmospheric chemistry and physical processes affecting atmospheric composition (e.g., tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, urban air quality), resulting radiative forcing on climate, and the effects on the climate system resulting from both human activities and natural phenomena. He developed one of the first comprehensive urban air quality models and co-authored the 1986 paper that provided the basic principles explaining the existence of the Antarctic ozone hole. His research has had a direct impact on policies to protect the ozone layer. For For these and many accomplishments, Professor Wuebbles was elected a member of the International Ozone Commission in 2000. As a convening lead author for the first and second assessment of climate change sponsored by the Intergovernmntal Panel on Climate Change, his concepts have been incorporated into the Kyoto Protocol and most carbon-trading application.

Past Visitors
Andy Revkin, May 2012; see the video
Edward S. Rubin, February 2012; see the video
Dennis Ojima, October 2011; see the video
Denny Ellerman, March 2011;see the video
David Tilman, January 2011; see the video
Virgilio Viana, October 2010; see the video
Mike Toman, April 2010; see the video
Matt Kahn, January 2010; see the video
Lynn Scarlett, October 2009; see the video
Richard Duke, April 2009; see the video
Thomas Lyon, February 2009; see the video
Stephen Schneider, October 2008; see the video