External Advisory Board

Waleed Abdalati Dr. Waleed Abdalati

Director, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Professor, Department of Geography
University of Colorado (Boulder)

Ph.D. University of Colorado (Boulder)

Research Foci:

  • Understanding how and why Earth's ice cover is changing using satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques complemented by in situ observations and modeling
  • Assessing the contributions of ice sheets and high-latitude glaciers to sea level rise
  • Participating in the development of NASA's Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and its successor, ICESat-II

He has served as NASA Chief Scientist (2011–2012), received numerous NASA awards and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

CIRES logo


Tamara Ledley Dr. Tamara Shapiro Ledley

Senior Scientist and Chair of the Center for Science Teaching and Learning at TERC. Prior to that she conducted a research program in Earth system science with an emphasis on the Polar Regions at Rice University for 15 years.

Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Current Educational Foci:
Confronting the Challenges of Climate Literacy, NSF, PI
Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network Pathway, NSF, PI
Earth System Science: A Key to Climate Literacy, NASA, PI
Facilitating Student Understanding of the Earth System on Multiple Time Scales, NSF, PI
Enhancing Use of Data in Education: Bridging the Scientific and Educational Communities, NSF, PI

TERC logo
Technical Education Research Center, Cambridge, MA


David Randall Dr. David Randall

Director, Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes
Professor, Dept. of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University

B.S. and M.S. Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering, OSU
Ph.D. Atmospheric Sciences, UCLA

Research Foci:
General circulation modeling
Cloud-climate studies and cloud parameterization
Climate dynamics
Numerical methods

Fellow (AMS, AGU, AAAS)
NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement
Journal of Climate - Chief Editor

Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes


Dan Schrag Dr. Dan Schrag

Daniel P. Schrag is the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment.

B.S. in geology and geophysics and political science from Yale
Ph.D. in geology from the UC Berkeley

Research Foci:

  • Climate & climate change over the broadest range of Earth history
  • Using information on past climate to better understand anthropogenic climate change in the future
  • Geochemistry and climatology
  • Energy technology & policy, including carbon capture and storage and low-carbon synthetic fuels

He currently serves on President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; recipient of the James B. Macelwane Medal from the AGU, and a MacArthur Fellow.

Harvard University Center for the Environment


Jim White Dr. Jim White

Director of INSTAAR, University of Colorado Boulder
Professor of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies
Current Chair of the NAS-NRC Polar Research Board

Ph.D. Columbia University

Research Foci:

  • Global scale climate and environmental dynamics
  • Carbon dioxide concentrations and climate from stable hydrogen isotopes, peat and other organics
  • Climate from deuterium excess and hydrogen isotopes in ice cores
  • Isotopes in general circulation models
  • Modern carbon cycle dynamics via isotopes of CO2 & CH4
  • Participant in GISP2, NorthGRIP, NEEM, Siple Dome and Inland WAIS ice core drilling project

Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research