Michael Schlesinger

Michael Earl Schlesinger
Born(1943-02-23)February 23, 1943
Los Angeles
DiedApril 11, 2018(2018-04-11) (aged 75)
Champaign, IL
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Scientific career
FieldsAtmospheric science
InstitutionsUniversity of Illinois
ThesisA numerical simulation of the general circulation of atmospheric ozone (1976)

Michael Earl Schlesinger (February 23, 1943 – April 11, 2018)[1] was a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Climate Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. (meteorology) in 1976 from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Michael Schlesinger was an expert in the modeling, simulation and analysis of climate and climate change, with interests in simulating and understanding the climates of the geologic past and possible future climates resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and human-made aerosols.

He was instrumental in developing a range of simple and complex climate models, which have been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Energy Modeling Forum. His research focused on: (1) simulating and understanding the effects on climate of a human-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet; (2) simulating and understanding the coupled climate-chemistry system, including the influences of the Sun – both irradiance and energetic electron precipitation – and volcanoes; (3) understanding and reducing the uncertainty in the estimation of climate sensitivity and climate feedbacks; and (4) performing integrative assessment of climate change, including further development of the robust adaptive decision strategy for mitigating and adapting to human-induced climate change.

He is known for his work on oscillations in the global climate system,[2] on estimating the climate sensitivity,[3] and on seasonal climate change.[4]

He edited four books, most recently Human-induced climate change: An interdisciplinary assessment.[5] He regularly appeared in the media.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Liu, Karen (16 April 2018). "Schlesinger leaves donation after death | The Daily Illini". dailyillini.com. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  2. ^ Schlesinger, Michael E.; Ramankutty, Navin (24 February 1994). "An oscillation in the global climate system of period 65–70 years". Nature. 367 (6465): 723–726. Bibcode:1994Natur.367..723S. doi:10.1038/367723a0. S2CID 4351411.
  3. ^ Andronova, Natalia G.; Schlesinger, Michael E. (16 October 2001). "Objective estimation of the probability density function for climate sensitivity". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 106 (D19): 22605–22611. Bibcode:2001JGR...10622605A. doi:10.1029/2000JD000259.
  4. ^ Schlesinger, Michael E.; Zhao, Zong-ci (May 1989). "Seasonal Climatic Changes Induced by Doubled CO2 as Simulated by the OSU Atmospheric GCM/Mixed-Layer Ocean Model". Journal of Climate. 2 (5): 459–495. Bibcode:1989JCli....2..459S. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(1989)002<0459:SCCIBD>2.0.CO;2.
  5. ^ Schlesinger, Michael E.; et al., eds. (2007). Human-Induced Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary Assessment. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139467964.
  6. ^ Booth, William (21 June 1989). "Environmentalists Hope for Scorcher; Aim Is to Avert Governmental Complacency on 'Greenhouse Effect'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011.
  7. ^ Lempert, Robert; Schlesinger, Michael (16 November 1995). "Perspective on the Environment". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011.
  8. ^ Revkin, Andrew C. (2 March 2008). "Skeptics on Human Climate Impact Seize on Cold Spell". New York Times.